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1836–2026 · THE VERDICTS IN BRIEF
The corridor story, stated before it is proven: North Liberty sat between the county's great roads, not on them. The Michigan Road — the county's one engineered early road — ran through Lakeville, east of the town, and missed it entirely; the Chicago Road and the Vistula Road ran across the county's northern tier. What served the town from its founding was the county-road system: roads petitioned for, viewed, and worked by statute labour under the township trustees, graveled as means allowed, and bound together by a stage line from 1878 and by federal post roads. The state arrived late: State Road 23 was designated on the South Bend–Walkerton road in the fall of 1930, and State Road 4's segment through town followed between 1942 and 1945. No named auto trail — not the Lincoln, not the Dixie, not the Yellowstone — ever adopted the road through town. The articles below carry each of those verdicts at the strength its evidence bears.
Principal sources: Howard (1907), Ch. II and Ch. IX (ldsgenealogy transcription, read first-hand); Chapman (1880), Liberty Township chapter (read first-hand); the Indiana State Highway Commission map series as cited per article.