James M. Carlisle was born at Beech Grove, Tennessee, on May 11, 1851; he died July 21, 1922, in Arlington, Texas. Carlisle was a prominent Texas educator and served as State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1889 to January 1899. He founded Carlisle Military Academy, a forerunner of The University of Texas at Arlington, in 1901. The military academy remained in operation until 1913. Carlisle Hall at UT Arlington is named in his honor. Carlisle's daughter Mary graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and came to Arlington in 1902 to teach English at her father's military academy. In 1904, Mary Carlisle, with friend Maggie Smith, founded the only private girls' school in Arlington, the Carlisle-Smith Institute, which operated just one year.
Dr. Milton H. Cravens, an Indiana native, received his medical degree in Louisville, Kentucky. He moved to the Johnson Station area of Arlington in 1885. A year later, Cravens married Bettie Burney, daughter of Dr. W. L. Burney, an early day Johnson Station physician. The couple had three children: Mary ( -1918); Burney (died in infancy); and Tom ( -1945). Bettie Cravens died in 1904. Two years later, Dr. Cravens married Mary Carlisle, daughter of J.M. Carlisle. Milton and Mary Cravens had two children: Carlisle ( -1975) and Marjorie (Mrs. Joseph Andrasko). Dr. Cravens practiced medicine in the Arlington area from 1885 until 1916, and died in 1921. Mary Cravens was active in Arlington civic affairs until her death in 1937.
Carlisle Cravens, an attorney, and his wife Jimmie had two children: Tom and Mary (Mrs. Scott Wysong III). Carlisle Cravens served on the Texas State Board of Education; Cravens Stadium in Arlington is named in his honor. Marjorie Cravens Andrasko taught school. She was a charter member of the Arlington Woman's Club and co-organizer of the Arlington Historical Society in 1966. In 1961, the Andraskos moved and remodeled the old M. H. Cravens home, built in 1910, from its original East Main Street location to West Sanford Street.
From the guide to the Carlisle and Cravens Families Papers Unprocessed mss. 2012-65., 1900-1965, (Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library)
