Leshara was established in 1905 when the Great Northern Railway built a station there; the S.C. & W. Townsite Company purchased 50 acres from Joseph Lammel that October, and commercial lots sold for $600 each within the month, with the Zaugg brothers' lumberyard as the town's first business. It is named for Petalesharo, a prominent Pawnee chief who inhabited the area in the 1800s.

One of the most compact towns in the county at just 0.069 square miles, Leshara had a 2020 population of 108. A separate Leshara Township also surrounds the village as its own civil township.