Neely's Landing or Neelys Landing is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Shawnee Township in northern

Cape Girardeau County Cape Girardeau County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri; its eastern border is formed by the Mississippi River. At the 2020 census, the population was 81,710. The county seat is Jackson, the first city in the US ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, United States. It is located seventeen miles north of Cape Girardeau and is part of the Cape Girardeau– Jackson, MO- IL

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

Etymology

Neely's Landing was named after Jacob Neely, who owned and operated a store and ferry at the landing in 1808. The landing was a stop for

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

steam boats carrying passengers and freight on the

. The name was given to the town because it was the name known to river boat pilots. The town has been locally referred to simply as Neelys and is often written without the apostrophe.State Historical Society of Missouri: Cape Girardeau County Place Names http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_cape_girardeau.html

History

The land around Neely's Landing was owned by John Hays in 1805. Hays operated a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

known as Hay's Ferry. Jacob Neely started a ferry and store at the landing in 1808. By 1876, the town had 20 residents, and by 1898, the population had risen to 50. The first post office was established in 1860 by R. W. Harris. When the Frisco Railroad came through the town in 1904, the population had doubled due to the need for railroad workers. The Neely's Landing Quarry is located north of the town and extracts limestone. On October 27, 1869, a tragedy occurred at Neely's Landing when the steamboat ''The Stonewall'', which was carrying 300 passengers and heavily laden with tons of cargo and 200 head of livestock, caught fire. The exact location of the disaster was known to local residents as the ''Devil’s Tea Table'' and was even mentioned by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

in his '' Life on the Mississippi''. ''The Stonewall'' was traveling southbound on the Mississippi River near Neely's Landing, its destinations being Cape Girardeau, Memphis and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. The exact cause of the fire is not known, but reports stated that either a candle fell over on a bale of hay or a lantern had overturned or a match was dropped by accident by a passenger onto hay on the lower deck. By the time the fire was discovered, the fire had spread out of control. When the mate and assistant mates were unable to extinguish the fire, the pilot on orders by the captain turned the boat to shore just below the mouth of Indian Creek, but struck a sandbar in the river. The steamboat then turned with the north wind flaming the fire. The panicked passengers were caught between the flames and the icy cold water, with the Missouri shore only laying 150 feet away. Between 200 and 300 passengers and crew perished in the disaster from either drowning or burning. Local residents pulled bodies out of the water and wrote down the hair color, clothing type, sex and apparent age so families could identify them. Between 60 and 70 victims who were never claimed by relatives were buried in a mass grave on the nearby Cotter farm.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri Cape Girardeau–Jackson metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Missouri