My Genealogy Hound

John R. Neelly is counted as one of the most prosperous merchants and successful planters of Neelly Post-office, a station six miles below Dardanelle. He was born at Oxford, Miss., in 1847, and was the youngest child and second son in a family of nine born to Eli and Ellen (Craig) Neelly, of Tennessee nativity, and now deceased, the father in 1888 at the age of eighty-two, and the mother in 1857. The senior Neelly was born in Maury County, Tenn., where he grew to manhood, and in 1850 left Mississippi to go to Arkansas, locating near Dardanelle, this State, subsequently taking up his residence on the farm now owned by his son. He was a member in good standing and an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was one of the number who assisted in the organization of the church of this faith at Dardanelle. Our subject received his early training and schooling in Dardanelle. During this period of his life the threatenings of war became a reality, and his studies were suspended till the close of the great conflict, when he again took them up, becoming a student in the school at Clarksville and other institutes of learning in Arkansas. On the completion of his school days our subject began farming on the place purchased conjointly by himself and father, and is now the possessor of 400 acres of land cleared and thoroughly improved with a fine residence and good substantial outbuildings. In 1882 he opened a store on his farm, here doing a business of $10,000 annually. The post office at Neelly (named in honor of him), of which he is the efficient postmaster, was established in 1886. In 1877 he, in company with several others, bought a tract of forty acres on the bench of Mount Nebo, and he was the second to settle on the mountain, building the first frame house there and doing much to enhance the value and popularity of the locality. From his cottage is commanded a most magnificent view of the surrounding country. In politics he affiliates with the Democratic party. He has been twice married, first in 1876 to Mrs. Nannie (Gibson) Stone, daughter of Joseph Gibson, one of Yell County’s eminent pioneers. After a marriage of three short years this wife died, leaving him childless, and in 1882 he led to the altar Miss Hallie Talbert, of Mississippi, whose father afterward removed to Arkansas, where he died. To this union have been given four children: John Eli, Bessie Grace, Mary Hellen and Lila Irma. Himself and family are members of the Presbyterian Church.