Neely's Landing or Neelys Landing is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Shawnee Township in northern Cape Girardeau County,

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

, United States. It is located seventeen miles north of

Cape Girardeau Cape Girardeau ( , ; colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 39,540, making it the 17th-largest in the state. The city is one o ...

and is part of the Cape Girardeau–

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, MO- IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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 main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

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 boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

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 the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

in his ''

Life on the Mississippi ''Life on the Mississippi'' is a memoir by Mark Twain of his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War published in 1883. It is also a travel book, recounting his trips on the Mississippi River, from St. L ...

''. ''The Stonewall'' was traveling southbound on the Mississippi River near Neely's Landing, its destinations being

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. 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