At age fourteen Carl Quist came from Denmark with his family to Rutland, Iowa. Before settling in Fort Dodge, Carl Quist had taught and directed a band at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois, and then traveled around Iowa and started bands in several towns. This tied in well with his sales of band instruments.  It is thought that Mr. Quist might have arrived in Fort Dodge in 1898, when he began making a living by selling uniforms and instruments for a local businessman.  Carl, who was always described as an excellent musician, started a piano repair and tuning business while he directed a variety of small local bands.  He married a Fort Dodge musician, a piano teacher named Isabel, who bore him a daughter, also named Isabel.  The daughter was only four years old when Mrs. Isabel Quist died in 1910.

Carl later remarried, and although some newspaper accounts say he was an excellent violinist, Oliver Paul Quist (Carl's son) reports that he didn't play that instrument at all, but enjoyed being pictured holding his new wife's violin.