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1916–2026 · Polk 1916–17; web and trade-press searches, November 2026
The franchise test. No Ford point, no Chevrolet point, and no other make's franchise point — and no named dealer-principal — for Lakeville was found in any carrier reached. The searches returned other towns' dealers, which are boundary items and are not imported; the nearest of record is the Gates line, whose own company history has its Chevrolet business beginning as a side-business of a grocery in Plymouth in 1928 — Plymouth's fact, printed only to show where the search landed. A town of Lakeville's size may simply never have held a franchise point; the record reached does not say it did, and this section does not say it didn't, beyond the carriers named. Settlers: the Lakeville Standard run; 1920s–1940s Polk gazetteers and South Bend city directories, none yet read first-hand for Lakeville.
The war years, 1942–45, print as untested at depth — as the checklist permits, and as the record requires: no carrier searched documents a Lakeville dealer's or garage's course through the years when the trade had nothing new to sell, and nothing is inferred from national conditions. Settlers: the Lakeville Standard run for those years; the South Bend Tribune archive.
Long-lived houses: none proven. No dealership founded long ago and still operating in Lakeville was proven in any carrier reached; there is therefore no founding-to-present house history to print at full size, and the 1916–17 garage (Kloppenstein O. H.) is not shown by any carrier reached to have become a sales house, let alone a surviving one. One cross-note, printed to prevent a category error: Hoosier Racing Tire is a tire manufacturer and distributor, not an automobile dealership
Closing line, as prescribed. Today the public record for Lakeville, Indiana (places and business-record carriers, November 2026) shows the auto trade standing as independent repair — The Garage (302 S. Michigan St), Kane's Auto Service, Tough Guy Enterprises, Lakeville Towing — plus Doc Auto Inc. on S.R. 931, which describes itself as a licensed dealer; no franchised new-car dealership stands in the town.