My Genealogy Hound

George W. Neel, a prominent farmer near Blythesville, Ark., was born in Obion County, Tenn., in 1858. He was the eleventh in a family of fifteen children born to John T. and Martha A. (Simmons) Neel. Both parents were natives of Tennessee, where the father’s occupation was farming, and where he died on December 12, 1864. The mother still resides in that State. George W. Neel attended the public schools of that period, but his educational advantages were very limited, and he did not receive the schooling his ambition desired. He remained at home until his majority, and in November, 1882, was married to Mrs. Nancy J. Ray, a young widow lady of that vicinity. After his marriage Mr. Neel purchased a farm, and settled upon it with his bride, where he resided until the year 1886, when he exchanged his Tennessee farm for one in Arkansas, a fine tract of forty acres, all under a high state of cultivation, and bearing grass, clover, corn and cotton; has also a splendid orchard, with which he has taken great pains to bring to as near perfection as possible. He is a member of the Masonic order and the Agricultural Wheel, and is one of the most enterprising and energetic of the younger farmers in this section. Mr. Neel is held in the highest regard by his neighbors, and deserves the success that has come upon his efforts. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Neel were born four children: Elizabeth Lavina, Georgie Elnora Belle, Flora Dora Lee and James Edwards.