"Little York"
by Cleo Leach Kingzette

Care has been taken to preserve the flavor and style of Cleo Kingzett's work.


Little York was a community in what is now the southern portion of Northfield Center Township.

Much of LITTLE YORK are Cleo's recollections of her girlhood, and consequently, the book is in a very real sense, a sort of local "Little House on the Prairie".


Cleo Leach Kingzett was born in 1889 (died in ?), and spent her life in the "Little York" section of Olde Northfield. Little York is located in the southern portion of what is now Northfield Center Township.


Her historical work, "Little York", is actually comprised of two sections:
LITTLE YORK, PART 1: A HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE, AND GIRLHOOD MEMORIES OF NORTHFIELD, AND MACEDONIA AT THE BEGINNNG OF THE 20TH CENTURY

LITTLE YORK, PART 2: GIRLHOOD MEMORIES OF LITTLE YORK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY.




The following is a biography of Cleo Leach Kingzett, based on her autobiography:
She was born in 1889 at the Leach Homestead in Little York. She was a school teacher, stenographer, sales person, clerical worker, her Dad's "boy" on his farm, and assistant matron at a home for unwed mothers. She took care of more than 300 girls in this home.She married Frank Edward Kingzett (born in 1890)of Cleveland at the Methodist parsonage in Akron next to the Courthouse. He was a mechanic on gas engines, and a road man for McMyer Company on steam and gas cranes. Frank died in 1927 of typhoid fever contracted while on a service job for McMyler's in St. Louis. The couple was living at the time in the home owned by the late Lilly Burroughs on S.R. 82, next to the new Johnson Funeral Home. Frank was a farmer in his younger days, both in Ohio and in North Dakota for his brothers. Cleo and Frank had two children: Budd Leach and Ola Ione.