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.