Uriah Evans Need served 13 years in non-consecutive terms as sheriff of Clay County. He also served as a U.S. Marshal for more than a decade. At the time of his death in 1926, Need had left retirement to serve as undersheriff under Sheriff Joe Heuson. He was the sheriff when the Clay County Courthouse was built in April of 1901.

Born November 27, 1849, in Indiana, Need moved to Dickinson County in 1880. It’s said he moved for his health and found work farming, which he continued for five years. During that time he also served three terms as township trustee and helped build a school and the Zion Church. He sent half his wages to his father to help raise his siblings. Need’s mother died when he was 9 and his brother had also passed by the time Need left the house. By 1871 he earned $38 a month as a farmer. ($1,009 today.) 

When he moved into Clay Center he got into real estate with JW Miller, then Samuel Randall and co-owned Need and Randall. 

His first term as sheriff began in 1889 when he won the majority vote on the Republican ticket. In 1919 he published a story in a newspaper warning drivers to use their dimmers. His terms were in 1889, 1891, 1899, 1901, and 1919.

Need was Chairman of the draft board between 1917-1920 and was an active stockholder of the Clay County Fair Association. 

He was married for 51 years to Mary A. Miller and the couple had five kids; two daughters died as children and another in her mid-30s; their two sons went on to become doctors. Dr. O.U. Need lived and practiced in Oak Hill, while Dr. Warren N. Need of Geneseo was a dentist. 

In 1897, Need’s brother, Jacob Jr. adopted a baby along with his wife, Zillah, when an infant was left on their doorstep. The newspaper printed on August 5th that a “pretty, plump week-old baby with clothes and $25” was left on their doorstep. They named the baby Lester, however he died at 7 months old.