Lee (Leroy James) McNeely

MCNEELY, HURD, WILLIS, MUELLER, RODENBACH

Posted By: C. M. Gregg (email)
Date: 8/28/2007 at 10:17:46

Lee MCNEELY, retired district court clerk, former newspaperman, secretary to several notable congressmen, frontier merchant, real estate representative and postmaster, died March 12, 1960 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin; born in Beaver, Pennsylvania August 21, 1876 the son of Thomas McKean and Mary Busbey McNeely, moved with his family to Washington D.C. in 1878; attended Eastern High School in that city and at 18 was Washington correspondent for the "Philadelphia Times" and several midwest newspapers; came to Dubuque, Iowa in 1897 as private secretary to Col. David B. Henderson, congressman from the Third Iowa District, also serving as assistant clerk to the Judiciary Committee, 1897-1899; was speaker’s clerk during Henderson’s two terms as Speaker of the House, 1899-1903, continued in that capacity under Speaker Uncle Joseph Cannon 1903-05, taking on the same duties or Benjamin P. Birdsall, who succeeded Col. Henderson, and for Congressman Wiley of New Jersey; served as secretary to Iowa’s Senator William B. Allison from 1905 till the latter’s death in 1908; married at Dubuque May 4, 1910 to Marian Kent Hurd, a recognized author and poetess, who was fatally injured in a traffic accident December 18, 1930; took up homesteading in Tripp county, South Dakota in 1908, became a small town merchant, developed real estate interests working for a land company, edited the Winner, South Dakota Journal, and was postmaster at McNeely; named a stenographer for the chairman of the Republican national committee in New York during the presidential campaign of William H. Taft, and was appointed clerk of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa by Judge Henry T. Reed in November, 1912, beginning his duties and forty-five years in this position on December 12th; served as food administrator and member of Liberty Bond drives during World War I; came to be greatly admired and respected for his integrity; efficiency and helpfulness, and was honored by a special session of his court on the fortieth anniversary of his clerkship, December 13, 1952, attended by a number of judges and federal officials and over one hundred attorneys of the district; enjoyed horticulture before and after his retirement in 1957; was a past president of National Association of Federal Court Clerks, the Dubuque Humane Society, a life member of El Kahir Shrine, and was active in the Elks, Masons, York Rite and Knights Templar; a daughter, Mrs. Carol Willis, died recently but is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Barbara Lee Mueller, Madison, Wisconsin, Mrs. Silvia Rodenbach, Columbus, Ohio, and a son, Lee McNeely, Jr., Boston, New York

"Annals of Iowa," Spring 1960 issue, pp. 314-315 as kindly scanned and sent to me by Genweb volunteer, Sharyl Ferrall.