Leith, ND
Grant County
Inhabited as of 5-07
Leith, ND was founded in 1910 as a Milwaukee Road Railroad town and once held as many as 170 people. It is a very clean and fairly intact near-ghost town.
US Census Data for Leith
Total Population by Place
1960 – 100
1970 – 92
1980 – 59
2000 – 28
2010 – 16
The train depot closed in 1964.
CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
A Leith Panorama
This was my mother’s home town…lots of wonderful memories from the 1950′s when we were kids visiting at Christmas, Christmas programs in the church pictured, summers pretending like we were in the wild west with our cap guns and holsters and cowboy boots. There is also an old jailhouse that is not photographed, the sight of many of our “shootouts”…it sits behind the community center which we called the old show hall. We try to go back and visit every summer…but just the cemetery now.
My mom and dad moved from Mott to Leith around 1988. My dad was the mayor for several years before passing away in 2008, while my mom still lives there. I live in Mott and try to visit mom on weekends, work permitting, since it’s only about a 40 mile drive. Leith, to me, has always reminded me of one of those one-horse towns where the inhabitants would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Full of people who are down to earth and have the values and morals that seem to be rapidly disappearing in our country. Crime, as in Mott, is virtually nonexistent. The towns are small enough where everyone knows everyone and if you start a rumor at one end of main street and walk to the other the rumor beats you there, with exaggerated attachments.
hello, my great uncle was elmer carter that was the first postmaster in leith. and other members of my family lived there too, after they sold the farm near carson. they moved the old postoffice from old carson in 1910. i wish i had some pictures of the post office, but don’t. would like to hear from someone who might have known some of my people. i’ve been to leith a few times and thot it was a neat old place.
Mr. Carter:
If you go to Facebook and search for LEITH NORTH DAKOTA 58551 BEFORE 1950 that is at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=271965059033 you will find several old photos from the Zeller and Andersen families that have been posted on the page. One of them is of what is called the “Carter Building,” which was relocated from Carson and served as the first Leith post office.
Best regards,
Gerald W. von Kamrath
Leith was the “town” that my parents would go in to on Saturday nights from the farm. Ultimately, both sets of my grandparents moved into Leith from their respective farms. They lived on either side of the Presbyterian church, which is pictured here. My maternal grandparents lived in the house pictured hidden amongst the trees (beneath the picture of the old Benz Garage). My paternal grandfather was the caretaker of the Presbyterian church in the late 50′s / early 60′s. I remember many Sunday mornings listening to one of the best choirs I ever heard in that beautiful little church. It breaks my heart to see it as it is now. Like Ms. Gubrud, I have many fond memories of Summer weekends spent in Leith, including working for “Goppi” Zeller at the Leith Cream Station (pictured right beneath the Presbyterian church pictures). After a full days work at the Cream Station, my brother, Jerry and I used to walk down to the Leith Grocery store and spend our day’s “wages” on “pop and candy!” Living in the urban chaos that is Los Angeles, makes me long for those Lost Childhood Summers in Leith!
I graduated from Leith High School in 1954. Our family attended the Leith Orthodox Presbyterian Church where many of my relatives sang in the choir. Several members of my family were married in that church. Funeral services for my sister Mary Ann, brother Jim, sister in law LaVonne, and niece Pam were held in that church. I weep when I see the church and other buildings in disrepair. I used to attend movies at the “Leith Opera House” at the end of Main Street. Leith was a pretty little town at one time. It was nice to read all of the postings.
Don Emch
Hi- Although I don’t have any direct connection to Leith, my mother, who is 89, and was raised in the Carson and Elgin areas, remembers going to “some nice dances” in Leith when she was young. The website http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org has several historic photos of Leith in the earlier days. If I may say, you and the others who have left messages here about your Leith experiences would be doing a great favor to history if you wrote down all of your such thoughts, including just what the shown buildings were as you remember them, and perhaps contribute copy of any information and photos to the Grant County Historical Society, perhaps. As our elders pass on, we are quickly becoming the only ones with the memory of the people and places, and they deserve to be remembered. Thanks. -John Gallardo, California
I have undated picture postcards from Lawfer Studio in Leith but am unable to determine the time period in which they were printed. They are prints of a fire at Farmers Elevator Co of Flasher. I am wondering if anyone posting here may have heard of this photography studio and the time period in which it was in business.
Lawfer studio had its own building but later moved into the Leith Cream Station(4th picture from the top).
Lawfer studio was upstairs in the Cream Station Building!
I grew up in Leith from the 1940′s to 1960. The old Lawfer Studio was located just north of the post office next to the Emch house. I believe the owner of the house belonged to Don Emch”s family posted on this web site.
The studio was in business in the 40′s and 50′s but I’m not sure when it closed. I loved this little town on the prairie. My wife and I bought my parents house on RR street and we still spend time there for a month or so in the summer. I know I shouldn’t look but the best time of my life was growing up in Leith.
Hi: My Grandmother lived in Leith probably in the 1930′s – 1960′s. Her name was Regina Augusta Alzner Wachsman Emch. She lived for many years with her husband, Frank Emch, on a farm outside of town. They moved into town in 1960′s. There were 17 children between them, some of whom went to high school in Leith and were great singers. I wonder if my uncles were part of the beautiful choir mentioned in the Presbyterian Church in Leith. My Mother, Dorothy Wachsman, graduated from Leith High School approx 1933-34, as did her brothers and sisters, Carl, Bob, Harold, and Faith; and her half-brothers, Jim, Franklin, Duane, and Don all in different years.
My great grandparents, William Christian & Nellie Viola (née Emch) Kamrath, homestead outside of Leith in 1907. I visited the town in 2000 and think I can identify some of the buildings/locations of half of the photos. Photo #1 at the top of the page is of the old Leith Post Office. Elmer Carter became the town’s first post master in 1910. Della (née Cook) Emch, wife of James Herbert “Bert” Emch, was the post mistress from 1929, until she retired at age 70 years in 1947. Photos #2 & #3 going down the page are of the old Leith Presbyterian Church. When Swiss immigrant Niclaus “Nicholas” Carlton Emch (1852-1930) and his many grown children and their families and a few former neighbors from Wayne County, Nebraska arrived in Leith in 1906-07, to homestead they swelled the budding ranks of adherents of the Presbyterian faith to form a local church. Rev. Young conducted the original church services under a lean-to at the north end of town and at the Valley View Hall. In 1913, men of the local congregation built the church with financial assistance from the Presbyterian congregations of Bismarck on the site of the lean-to. One time resident Emma Hedman remembered the many members of the Emch family were very musically gifted and the Sunday services being filled with song. The Leith Presbyterian congregation rejected what they saw as the liberalization of the church in the 1920s, and 1930s, and voted in 1935, to reorganized under the Orthodox Presbyterian charter. When I visited Leith in July 2000 the top of the steeple had been taken down before it collapsed for safety reasons and was laying on the ground next the tower’s base seen here behind the big bush. Photo #6 is the old fire bell used to warn the town’s residents of an emergency. It is across the street from where the old the volunteer fire brigades garage was located. Photo #7 is the orange brick Teker Farm Equipment Repair building on the east of Lieth Avenue across from the old Post Office. Photo #11 is another view of the old post office. Photo #15 is the house James Herbert “Bert” (1877-1973) and Della (née Cook) Emch (1877-1974) bought in 1929, on the northeast corner of First Avenue and Second Street after retiring from the farm and lived in until they moved back to Roanoke, Indiana to live their last years with their daughter, Fern (née Emch) Berry. After retiring from farming Bert was secretary-treasurer of the Leith Loan Association, president of the Leith town board, and director of the Grant County Fair for several years until 1932, when it moved to Carson. Della graduated from the Teachers College in Wayne, Nebraska, but got married in 1897, and moved with her husband’s family to North Dakota in 1906. Della became the town midwife and regularly assisted during many of the birthings around Leith. During the 1918 Influenza Epidemic she helped the town doctor, Dr. Loren Zen, care for the many sick in the area. She was also very active with the founding of the local Presbyterian Church and ran the first Sunday School. After moving to town in 1929, Della became the post mistress until retiring in 1947. Photo #17 is the post office again with what I think was the Grocery Store next to it. Photo #18 is the old playground slide across the street where the school #49 was located is all that is today left of a reminder of the old school #49. The original two-room schoolhouse was build by Peter Hedman in 1912, on the corner of his and the Moen family’s land. Later the county built old school #49 at the end of NW First Avenue and Joseph Lawfer bought the original schoolhouse and moved to Leith Avenue and converted it into his photograph studio. Photo #19 is the house north across the street from the post office that William C. (1880-1961) & Nellie (née Emch) Kamrath (1883-1961) bought in 1944, when William retired from farming and passed the farm to his youngest son, Roswell, and moved into town. William was born in Dixon County, Nebraska and ran away from his strict German father at age 12½. He found work at the Emch farm in neighboring Wayne County where he eventually married the “boss’s daughter,” Niclaus “Nicholas” C. Emch’s daughter, Nellie Viola Emch, in 1900. They followed Nicholas to Morton County (later this section became Grant County) and homesteaded outside of Leith like Nellie’s father and many brothers. William was elected to the state legislature in 1919, representing Grant and Sioux Counties. He retired from politics in 1955, as President Pro Tem of the Senate, holding the record for the most years in the state legislature. After William and Nellie passed away in 1961, Nellie’s brother, Franklin Perry Emch (1879-1963) and his second wife, Regina “Jean” (née Alzner) Wachsman Emch (1893-1983), bought the place. It was later converted into a storage garage for a couple of tractors before being abandoned. Photo #20 is of the picnic tables at Leith Park on the northeast corner across from the old Post Office. The Grant County Fair was held for many years in Leith and the town was a contender for the county seat until it lost out to Carson. In 1932, the location of the county fair was moved to Carson. Photo #21 is looking north up Leith Avenue past the park towards the corner of Second Street the white house is the old A. Zeller home and the brown building was the old cold storage building. Last Photo #24 is a panoramic view south down Leith Avenue with the post office and grocery store on the right and the brick Teker Farm Equipment Repair building on the right. Look forward to seeing if anyone has corrections or can identify the other photos.
Gerald W. von Kamrath
San Diego, California
I just re-read your description of the photos, and am so glad you’ve done this. This is what is necessary for the story to continue. THANK YOU! -John Gallardo Chico, California
Dear Sir: Would you please e-mail me because I know most of the people you are talking about. My grandfather Edward Heaps was the constable when I was a boy; and I would go with him to the church and put coal in the stove and wipe everything down upstairs.
My G Grandfather lived and died (and is buried) in Leith, ND. I have never been there but, my father told me that he attended the funeral of GGrandfather, Samuel Clarke Hill , He lived there into the late 20′s or early 30′s I dont know the exact date… but, someday I will probably go and see the headstone and figure it out…;)
Hello,
I was in touch with a distant relative of mine who has done research on the Leith Cemetery. I will try to contact her about her research, which is ongoing. Perhaps she has some information ( photos of headstones?) that will help you. She does not live in Western North dakota, but sometimes goes there. -John Gallardo, Chico, California
Wow ! These pictures bring back fond memories of weekends at my grandparents Both Maternal and Paternal who lived on either side of the Presbeyterian church. I remember Goppy at the cream station and Lester Tekers welding shop and the Store, the Post Office. The old Jail . My brothers James, Jeff ,Paul, and my cousins Karen, Brenda ,Bruce and Kay (and other cousins) John ,Neil and Audrey, spent many weekends playing all manner of childhood games in the streets of Leith.
Thanks for the effort it is appreciated….
Swamplager@hotmail.com
Hello,
I was fascinated to read some ot the history of Leith, as my son and daughter-in-law have just moved there! So now, Leith has had it’s first minor up-swing in population in over 60 years!! I might be interested in renovating a property in Leith as a summer home, if anyone knows of property for sale there. Wonderful pictures, and it is such a shame that little villages like this are becoming extinct.
Randall, Call me Immediately! Tom Hammerel 701-226-2560
Just thought you might find it interesting, one of the houses in one of your pictures apears to be for sale, it’s the 9th picture down on the page, or Leith11.
http://nd.craigslist.org/reo/2554579095.html
Thanksgiving Day, 2011
Visited and reviewed by Shyrla Wachsman Getchell, Carl Wachsman Jr.(Chuck), (daughter of Rollie Emch, son of Frank Emch) Marilyn Emch Knight.
Thank you very much, the trip to the past via this pictorial was thoroughly enjoyed.
On the website http://www.vpike.com, and some others, both Leith and Heil (both in Grant County) are shown. One can go up and down the streets and see all the structures that were there when the last photos were taken. With 360degree feature! Also, in Grant County, Carson, Elgin, and New Leipzig are featured. Check it out.
I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures. I remember visiting with my family in the 70s. We visited the farm my moms family lived on outside of town and she tried to explain the ancestral lineage of the Mossman,Emch and Wachsman clans. I still don’t quite get it, but I look forward to visiting again.
I left leith in Aug. of 1971 to join the marine corps and retired from that brotherhood in1992. I now live in north carolina a few miles from Camp Lejeune, home of the 2nd Marine Division. I remember leith when I was a boy and also worked for goppy at the creamery and also had worked at the grain elevator unloading salt blocks or cleaning the ogger. My grandmother Edith Heaps was the postmaster and my father Lemuel Jones was a rural carrier, and the post office is where us kids would wait for the bus. MY parents both past away in July and November of 2007. Not a lot of people know that my father was a Pearl Harbor survivor. They are both buried at the State Veterans Cemetery In Jacksonville,N.C. I have told people about being from the country, but I don’t think they are able to grasp the affect it has on a person; especially when I tell them that in the evening it is so quiet that all you can hear are the birds. That is what I truly miss because it gives you piece of mind and it is so peaceful. Praise the Lord for such a place.
My uncle, Martin Rothi or Roti is buried in the Leith Cemetary. I know that he had a homestead there in the early 1900′s. I wonder how I could find out where it was. Also he had stock in the Leith Equity Exchange. Has anyone heard of that? Thanks for your help.
Doing some research on where my father, William P. Ryan, was born in 1918. I believe his Dad John was in railroad construction and later road construction. I understand the town was on a Milwaukee Road route. My grandfather may have also been in State politics. Not sure when they relocated to southern Wisconsin (Janesville) where I live. Wondering if anyone knows about the Ryans from that time period?
Thanks-