Thought some of you might enjoy this tidbit from Dick Eastman's online newsletter: They Spelled the Name Wrong Ness City is a small town in Ness County, Kansas. It has a population of about 3,500 people. The town also contains the Ness County Hospital and the Ness City Elementary School. All were named after a local Civil War hero of the same name. Only one thing is wrong: officials recently discovered that they have been spelling the name wrong! The name of Noah Ness first appears in the 1860 Kansas census. He died of his Civil War wounds four years later on August 22, 1864. Unfortunately, the 1860 census is the only document that spelled his name that way. Noah's will, his Civil War military records, and other documents always spelled it with a silent "K" in front: Kness. Even one signature still exists that Noah signed himself. His signature is unmistakable: Noah Kness. The assumption is that the 1860 census taker wrote the name the way he heard it without verifying the spelling. The history of Ness City (with the improper spelling) is available at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/NessCity/history.html. Ness City and county officials have not indicated whether or not they plan to change the spelling. -- *Marsha L. Ensminger __________________________________________________________________ Switch to Netscape Internet Service. As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register Netscape. Just the Net You Need. New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups. Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp