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1832–1840 in the works
Detroit prospector, iron-works partner, licensed keeper — and the stand at the present site of Lakeville in 1836. The works jointly carry his course, each clause sourced. The Atlas: in June 1832 William L. Earl "came out prospecting from Detroit", concluded with Alanson M. Hurd that the St. Joseph valley near Mishawaka held iron ore, and determined to make a town — the St. Joseph Iron Works, laid out in July 1833 (Howard: "Laid out and surveyed for Earl and Hurd"), its tavern "called 'Earl's'". Howard's hotels narrative: in 1834 the license of South Bend's Michigan Hotel "was issued in the name of Mr. Wm. L. Earl, father of Mrs. A. B. Merritt, of this city, and Wm. L. and Daniel Earl, of California", Earl alleging Hurd had swindled him out of his Mishawaka interests. Then the clause this town stands on: "At the September term, 1836, Mr. Earl took out license for Earl's Tavern, a stand which he erected that season at the present site of Lakeville, he having purchased for this purpose a 40 acre tract of Jacob Rector." Chapman contributes the use: the township's first election "was held in Earl's tavern, in April of 1836" — the election falling before the September license within the same year, an ordering the works do not remark on and this section does not smooth. Howard's town section calls the site what it was: "Originally this was merely a place of rest and refreshment for the accommodation of travelers" on the Michigan road. By 1840 Earl was back in South Bend, building the Exchange Hotel and keeping it as first landlord. The later telling that makes his stand a town named "Earl Town" is Geyer's alone and is tested in the stories file; in these three works, what Earl founded at Lakeville was a tavern stand — and the settlement's civil life began inside it.