Editing Leota, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[Image:Leota Street Scene.jpg|thumb|left|Leota street scene]]
[[Image:Dutch Settlers, Leota, MN.jpg|thumb|left|Homestead of Martin Kallemeyen, first Dutch settler in Leota Township]]
The town of Leota was named after [[Leota Township, Minnesota|Leota Township]] in which it is located.  The story has it that Leota was the name of a young Indian woman who figured in a romantic story familiar to W. G. Barnard, one of the township's first residents.  However existence of such a story cannot be verified.  If true, Leota Township (and the town of Leota) are the only place names in all of Nobles County that memorialize specific Native Americans.<ref>[http://www.nclibrary.org/ Names of Nobles County by Raymond Crippen]</ref> The town of Leota is situated on sections 5 and 8 of the township.  Leota was established in 1891 as a settlement of Dutch Farmers who migrated northward from another Dutch Settlement in [[Orange City, Iowa]].  The first building erected in Leota was the Dutch Reformed Church.  Later in 1891, John DeBoer, Nick DeBoer, and James TenCate erected a second building that became Leota's first general store.  A post office was established in 1893, and the Christian Reformed Church was built in 1898.  The town was surveyed by M. S. Smith for James TenCate, and the plat was dedicated on January 1, 1902.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8AMwAAAAYAAJ A. P. Rose's History of Nobles County]</ref>  Leota was never incorporated, though it remains a thriving community.  The U. S. Census Bureau classifies Leota as a [[census-designated place]] (CDP).  CDPs are populated areas that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places.