"Earl Town"

Geyer narrative · Howard tested

One carrier tells it; the county history confirms an Earl — and a tavern, not a town. Geyer's narrative: "William Earl another early pioneer had much land and built his home which is at the corner of US 31 and Lake Trail. The first election was held in his home. The town was called Earl Town and often referred to as a village. It later was named Lakeville." Howard's history, fetched in two places, carries the man and not the town: his hotels chapter records that "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" — the man "Mr. Wm. L. Earl", formerly a partner in the Mishawaka iron works and town plat — and his Lakeville section, whose origin account is the 1857 addition and the 1859 plat record, contains no Earl and no earlier town name at all. The two tellings print whole, side by side: Geyer's home, first election and town name against Howard's licensed tavern stand on forty acres. The likely telling-history is visible in the texts — a possessive tavern name, "Earl's Tavern", retold as a place name, "Earl Town" — and it prints as inference, not fact. "Earl Town" is carried in this section as Geyer-only, folklore-grade telling, not as a documented former town name.