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The town of New Carlisle is situated on the central western <br /> edge of Olive Township , Section 34 , Range 1 West , Township 38 <br /> North . Overlooking the Terre Coupee prairie , the town sits upon <br /> a glacial shelf nineteen miles west of South Bend . <br /> The establishment of New Carlisle was due in large part to <br /> the opening of Michigan Road in 1827 , The first surveyed road <br /> through the area , it ran north from the Ohio River through Logan- <br /> sport to South Bend , where the route turned west toward Michigan <br /> City avoiding the Kankakee Swamp , traversing the Terre Coupee <br /> prairie . 1 The last segment of the road from South Bend to <br /> Michigan City is presently called Lincolnway West ( U . S . 20 ) . <br /> though within the New Carlisle town limits is considered Michigan <br /> -S-t-. Bourissa Hill , as the area was then called , was so named <br /> for Lazarus Bourissa (also Bourissau ) , a half-breed Indian who <br /> 2 <br /> owned the land and operated a trading post on the hill . It was <br /> from his children that Richard Risely Carlisle <br /> bought the land in 1836 . Carlisle platted the area , and named <br /> the streets Race , Arch , Filbert , Cherry , Chestnut and Front , af- <br /> ter his native city of Philadelphia . 3 The name of Carlisle Hill <br /> was given to the area until , in 1866 , the town was incorporated <br /> under its present name .4 <br /> The arrival in 1851 of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern <br /> Railroad spurred a period of rapid growth on Carlisle Hill that <br /> extended into the 20th century . During those decades , ten addi - <br /> tions were made to the town ' s original plat , indicating a steady <br /> pattern of expansion into the 1920is . 5 While establishing the <br /> hamlet as the commercial and trading center in the area , the <br />