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Buffalo hunters looking for the herds traveled along Wolf Creek until the animals began to disappear. They were followed by Civil War veterans looking for a place to start over. Some saw the area around the creek as beautiful and fertile, holding the promise of rich and productive land. A school was built about 1 mile east and north of that site called the Lura School that eventaully became School District No. 11 of Russell County. Settlers tended sheep on their ranches and grew crops. Hauling grain and animals to market was long and difficult to the railroad at Bunker Hill so hope for a railroad started building in northern Russell County.
Because a push was underway to vote in bonds to entice the railroad to build along Wolf Creek, speculators started buying up land and platting out townsites. One such man, Richard Leeson of Illinois, bought land near the school and had it platted out in 1886,naming the town Leeson. He had an agent in Russell, Charles Spencer, advertise and sell lots. A general store stocked with $5000 worth of merchandise was set up there by the merchant Isaac Biggs. The Lura school was in the southeast corner of Leeson's town platt map. Richard Leeson had hoped that with the school already there, the town of Leeson would catch on.
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