ROBERT NEELY, Platteville; was born July 11, 1815, in Westmoreland Co., Penn.; in 1821, his parents, David and Jane (Fether) Neely, removed and settled in Mercer Co., Penn.; grown to manhood here, Robert went to Ohio and resided there between three and four years; he then taught a term of school near his old home and decided to come to the lead regions; in May, 1839, he reached Burlington, Iowa; and soon after made a claim forty miles to the west of that town. Owing to the fact that the land came into market almost immediately after, he was compelled to relinquish his claim and come to Wisconsin. His friend, Horace Earle, had accompanied him from the East, and the two came to Platteville together. They soon secured a wood-cutting contract on what is now Mr. Neely's farm, it then being a smelting survey reserved by the government. They boarded in a cabin with several other bachelors, said hut then standing a short distance from where Mr. N. has since built his barn. Finally, Mr. Neely made a "claim" here, erected a better habitation and caused the coming of his aged parents, though he then looked upon this as only a temporary stopping-place. Yet as he plowed and sowed, built and planted, his affections centered around the lowly house where his parents were so contentedly dwelling. He married Miss Helen M., daughter of B. F. and Mary F. (Robinson) Chase; she is a descendant on her mother's side of one of Vermont's first Governors, and was born in Middleport, N. J. B. F. Chase afterward removed his family to Ohio, where she engaged in teaching prior to her marriage. Since that event, which occurred in August, 1849, in Salem, Penn., Mr. and Mrs. Neely have resided on this picturesque farm, Mr. N. having purchased it at the U. S. land sale held in 1848 at Mineral Point. His father, who had in his younger days served with Mad Anthony Wayne, died here in his 85th year. The aged mother also passed her last days here. Mr. and Mrs. Neely are members of the Platteville Congregational Church, of which he has been a Deacon for the past twenty years. They have seven children - Henry, Mary F., Kate M., Helen S., Fannie L., Robert S. and Benjamin P. All were born and educated in Platteville.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.