Charles F.W. Neely

Charles F.W. Neely, editor and proprietor of the Morning, the Sunday and the Weekly News, Muncie, Ind., is a native of the city, born January 4, 1859, and a son of Moses L. and Mary A. (Kenower) Neely. He was educated at the city schools, and after graduating at the Muncie high school, in 1877, studied law fro three years in the office of Blount & Templer. About the time he was well prepared to enter upon the practice of his chosen profession, he found the city of Muncie overcharged with legal aspirants, and he found employment at others business at other points, including St. Louis, Mo., for one year, and Kansas City, in the same state for one years, and elsewhere.

In 1885 he purchased the Evening News, of Muncie from N.F. Ethell, who founded that journal in 1872. It was continued as an evening newspaper until July 5, 1892, when it was changed to the Morning News. To venture upon the publication of a morning journal was a somewhat precarious undertaking, as many sad failures of similar ventures had occurred in cities much larger than Muncie, and therefore the success of the Morning News has been a source of much gratification to its proprietor. In August, 1892, Mr. Neely associated with himself Frank J. Claypool, and together they began the publication of the Farmers’ Record, which was, for the time, the official organ of the F.M.B.A., but when that political and economic organization began to show evidences of loss of vigor, Messrs. Neely & Claypool disposed of their organ to the American Farmer company, of Springfield, Ohio.

In politics, Mr. Neely has always been an earnest republican, and for five years has been chairman of the city central republican committee; fraternally, he is a member of the B.P.O.E., and of the I.O.R.M. He has always manifested a lively interest in the industries of Muncie, and has done much toward forwarding them, both by the use of his pen and other means. He is a sprightly and incisive writer, a shrewd politician, and a born newspaperman. His marriage occurred March 23, 1886, to Miss Sarah E. Morgan, of Muncie, a daughter of Thomas Morgan, of Madison County, Ohio.

 Moses L. Neely, father of Charles F.W. Neely, was born in Adams county, Pa., April 30, 1816, and was a son of Moses and Jane (Smith) Neely, who left Pennsylvania in 1834, and with their son, Moses, and other members of their family settled in Clarke county, Ohio. He was married March 20, 1838 to Mary A. Kenower, a native of Cumberland County, Pa., born March 7, 1818, and taken to Clarke County, Ohio, in 1835, by her parents, Jacob and Sarah Kenower. In February, 1839, Moses L. Neely came to Muncie, Ind., and was the second cabinet maker in the town. After some years he engaged in general merchandising at the corner of Main and Walnut streets, carrying on the business for eighteen years, and then purchased a farm near town, to which he retired to enjoy the fruits of the labor of his earlier days, but in the short space of five years, on January 9, 1869, he passed away, leaving, to mourn his loss, a widow and ten children, the names of the latter being: Cyrus G., Carey O., Charles F.W., Sarah F., Mary J., Laura S., Wilma E., Leonora I., Emma and Kate W. Mr. Neely was a republican form the organization of that party, and a pious member of the Presbyterian church, of which also, his widow is a consistent member.

Source: A Portrait and Biographical Record of Delaware and Randolph Counties, Indiana by A.W. Bowen & Co., 1894.