Marion County, West Virginia Biography of Hon. Matthew Mansfield NEELY This file was submitted by CJ Towery, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pages 231-232 HON. MATTHEW MANSFIELD NEELY, who represented the First Congressional District in Congress from 1913 to 1921, is a lawyer of Fairmont, where he has practiced his profession with notable success for twenty years. He is also a former mayor of his home city. Mr. Neely was born on a farm near Grove, Doddridge County, November 9, 1874. His first American ancestor was Capt. John Neely, who came with his parents from England when he was quite young. As a youth in the colonies be helped construct the forts Crown Point and Ticonderoga, subsequently the scene of two of the most brilliant exploits in the early part of the Revolutionary war. The son of this Colonial settler, and grandfather of the ex-Congressman, was Matthew Neely, who was born in New York State, but established his family in West Virginia, arriving in the latter state more than a century ago. The father of Matthew Mansfield Neely was Dr. Alfred Neely, a most generous, self-sacrificing and noble type of the old pioneer country doctor. He was born at Morgansville on the old Northwestern Turnpike in Doddridge County in 1830, and died in 1906. For two years he attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, studied under a noted physician of that time in New York City, and then returned home and lived in Doddridge County the rest of his life. From his home he practiced over at least half a dozen surrounding counties. His skill was extraordinary, and he was credited with many remarkable cures. He was a physician who was in every way a friend of humanity, and in the service he rendered attending the sick at any time, day or night, in winter or summer, the thought of pay was never an incentive. He carried his own medicines, according to the custom of pioneer doctors, in his saddle bags. When his patients could remunorate him he accepted compensation, but there were countless cases in which his work was without material reward. He did more than render professional service; instances are recalled when he furnished his patient a cow to supply milk for the underfed children. Notwithstanding the great extent and constant labor of his professional career, it is not strange that he died a comparatively poor man. The nobility of Doctor Neely's character and the striking example of his busy life of service to humanity proved a great inspiration to his son, who, nevertheless, had to learn self-reliance and largely make his own way in the world. Doctor Neely married Mary Morris, who was born near Grove in Doddridge County, and, now in her seventy-first year, is a woman of unusual intellectual vigor and accomplishments. Her memory extraordinary. She can still repeat without error entire chapters of the New Testament and countless poems, such as "The Cotter's Saturday Night," and Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Under the influence of his mother's example Mr. Neely formed the habit of committing to memory the gems of literature. Mrs. Neely 's father was an early settler of Doddridge (then Harrison) County, and at the beginning of the Civil war he entered the Union Army, was captured in the second battle of Bull Run and later starved to death in Andersonville Prison. Doctor Neely and wife had three children: Dagmar, wife of J. E. Keyser, who is now at the head of the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company, wholesale hardware merchants at Belington in Barbour County, and vice president of the Belington National Bank; Matthew Mansfield; and Delmond, wife of Charles H. Jones, secretary-treasurer of the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company of Belington. In 1879 the Neely family removed from Grove to the nearby village of Market, and on the family farm in that locality Matthew Mansfield Neely spent the next thirteen years of his life. Soon after going there he was assigned a share of the farm labors, of which he performed an increasing part with each succeeding year. He attended the country school situated more than half a mile from his home and seperated from it by the muddiest of roads, for a period of four winter months of each year until he was seventeen. After ten weeks' training in a summer school he in the year 1893 successfully passed an examination and received a teacher's certificate, and in the fall of that year took charge of a short school term at Windom, a mining town in Mineral County, near the summit of the Allegheny Mountains. He remained there teaching two years. In his third year he became principal of the school at Nethkenville near Elk Garden, where he taught during 1895-96. After his first term as teacher he attended the spring term of Salem College, West Virginia, and resumed his studies in that institution three successive springs terms, paying his way out of his meager savings from teaching and by working Saturdays. In the fall of 1897 Mr. Neely entered West Virginia University. Early in the following year the Spanish-American war began, and at the first call for volunteers he enlisted as a private in Company D of the First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. He was with that command seven months and five days, when he was mustered out of the service by reason of the termination of the war. In the Spring of 1899 he resumed his work at West Virginia University. While in the university he was obliged to earn a large part of the money with which to defray his expenses, improving every opportunity that was offered to him to earn an honest dollar. In spite of the fact that he was largely working his way through school he was one of the most popular members of the student body, and when graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1901, he was president of his class. In 1902 he received the LL.B. degree from the University Law School. During his senior year in college he and a fellow student "split" the Wiles oratorical prize of $100; while in the same year he and a fellow student won a debating prize of $50 for the Columbia Literary Society, of which they were members. During the year 1899 Mr. Neely was active in the Cadet Corps of the university, and won the gold medal for being the best drilled cadet in the Corps. The year he graduated in law he was chosen in a competitive contest to represent the West Virginia University in the Central Oratorical League, composed of Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State, Ohio Wesleyan University, Indiana University and West Virginia University. In this contest he gained third honors for his alma mater. Mr. Neely began the practice of law at Fairmont in 1902, and the following year formed a partnership with Henry S. Lively, a school and fraternity mate, under the firm name of Neely & Lively. This has been one of the prominent law firms of Fairmont and Marion County for nearly twenty years. Mr. Neely did not enter politics as a candidate until his prestige was securely established in his profession. In 1908 he was elected mayor of Fairmont for a term of two years on a dry ticket. From 1911 to 1913 he served as clerk of the House of Delegates of West Virginia. When the Hon. John W. Davis of West Virginia was appointed solicitor general of the United States and resigned his seat in Congress, Mr. Neely entered the race for his unexpired term, and was elected October 14, 1913, as a member of the Sixty-third Congress. He was re-elected to the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth congresses, and served continuously as representative of his district, the First, composed of the counties of Brooke, Hancock, Marion, Marshall, Ohio, Taylor and Wetzel, until March, 1921. This district is normally republican by from 2,500 to 5,000 votes, but Mr. Neely was repeatedly elected and served the district faithfully until the republican landslide of 1920, in which he was defeated, despite the fact that he ran more than thirteen thousand votes ahead of his ticket. Mr. Neely was one of West Virginia's congressmen during the critical period of the World war. One cause in which he was especially interested was proper provisions for the veterans of former wars, including members of the G. A. R. During the Sixty-fifth Congress he secured the passage of seventy-two private pension bills for veterans or their dependents of the Civil or Spanish-American wars. He secured by special enactment more pensions for old soldiers than any other man who ever represented a West Virginia district during the same length of time. In the World war Mr. Neely worked unceasingly for the soldiers, especially those of his district, and at the beginning of America's participation in the struggle he proffered his services to the President for active military duty in any capacity, with or without a commission, expressing his willingness to resign his seat in Congress. The President declined his offer, stating that he could best serve his country in Congress. Mr. Neely was one of the hardest working members of the national Legislature. He was very active in the study and disposition of labor problems, and had the complete confidence of organized labor all over the country. He is a finished orator and able debater, and whether in public or private life he has a great following of enthusiastic admirers throughout his native state. His success as a lawyer has been due to his indefatigable and earnest labors in any case in which his talents have been engaged. He possesses great power as a pleader before a jury. As a citizen he is broad-minded, progressive and liberal, with a genuine desire to fulfill to the utmost his obligations to his fellow men. Mr. Neely is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, an officer of the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, a life member of Fairmont Lodge of Elks, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He also belongs to the Phi Sigma Kappa, Delta Chi and Phi Beta Kappa college fraternities. October 21, 1903, Mr. Neely married Miss Alberta Clare Ramage, of Fairmont, daughter of B. F. Ramage. Her father was for two terms clerk of the Circuit Court for Marion County. Mr. and Mrs. Neely have three children Alfred, born October 5. 1904; John Champ, born January 14, 1914; and Corinne, born December 18, 1915. Mr. Neely was a member of the National Guard of West Virginia from 1900 to 1911, rising from corporal to the rank of major; and it is due to this fact that he is widely and commonly known as "Major Neely."