Leota (also found spelled Leoti) had a post office from 22 Oct 1874 to 17 Oct 1881. The first postmaster was John M. Cooper. The plat for the town was filed 05 June 1879 by I. N. Cope. Leota was called Weston first. It was located in the NE 1/4 of Sec. 18, Twp 3S, Range 23W, in the SW forty acres of the quarter section. This puts it in Orange Township. D. N. Bowers says that Isaac Newton Cope homesteaded this quarter in 1872 and started the town in 1873. "The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas", by F. M. Lockard says that in July 1872, Cope build a log house with a shingled roof - the first log house in the county. The town was situated at the foot of a high bluff overlooking the valley. Before the county was settled, hunters and trappers kept a flag flying from the summit of the bluff to guide them. The first newspaper in the county, "The Western Locomotive" was established in Weston in 1875 by Nat L. Baker. Lockard says that Baker's opinion was purchasable, and it's price within reach of any impoverished town company, accounting for the paper's moves back and forth between rival towns. Others involved in establishing the town included M. A. Morrison, Dr. Green and Nora Weaver. When the post office was established, the postal dept. refused to call the office Weston, because that name was already used for another Kansas post office. So the town was called Leota, supposedly after Leota Morrison, daughter of M. Alexander Morrison. According to Lockard's "History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas", Morrison said he would give an oyster supper to the town company for the privilege of naming the town. Leota and Norton were the principal contestants in the county seat battle, which began in 1872 and dragged on until 1878, when the County Commissioners finally accepted the public square and court house at Norton. The loss finished the town of Leota, and the town site was officially vacated 03 July 1882. Some of the buildings were moved to Oronoque, when that town sprang up on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad about 1885. Today, if my map reading is accurate, it looks like the Leota townsite is covered by the Keith Sebelius Reservoir. The abandoned Leota cemetery on the bluff south of the lake contains very few identified graves, with the surnames Cope, Louk and Van Meter.