Brief
History from Kansas State Historical
Society:
Ness County, which
contains the cities of Bazine, Ness City,
Ransom, Utica, and Brownell, was named for
Noah V. Ness, a
member of Company G, Seventh Kansas
Cavalry, who was killed at Abbeyville,
Mississippi, during the Civil War. The
county was originally organized on
October 23, 1873, by S. G. Rodgers; J. E.
Farnsworth; Charles Maguire; Edward
Haydin;
and John Lee; however, one of the
first officers claimed fraud on the
population count, and when the charge was
substantiated,
the governor "disorganized" the
county. The county was reorganized on
April 14, 1880.
The arrival in 1873 of
a Chicago Settlement Company under the
leadership of S. G. Rodgers began the
first settlement of the
county. The fraudulent population
situation mentioned above continued to
plague the county settlement for nearly
eleven
years. A group of influential
cattlemen did not wish the county
officially organized and prevented it by
exposing the
population count and placing
obstacles in the way of formal
organization.
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