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SUMMERS COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 23, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 574
Summers
ROBERT SUMMERS NEELY, D. D. S., is engaged in the
successful practice of his profession at Hinton, judicial
center of Summers County, and he is one of the progressive
and influential young men of his native county, where
the year 1922 finds him in active service as chairman of
the republican county committee.
Doctor Neely was born at Pipestem, this county, May 22,
1890, and is a son of Levi Matteson Neely and Alice
Virginia (Martin) Neely, both likewise natives of Sum-
mers County, where the respective families were founded
many years ago. William R. Neely, paternal grandfather
of the doctor, was born in Indiana and became one of
the successful pioneer farmers of Summers County, West
Virginia. Richard Martin, maternal grandfather of Doctor
Neely, was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war,
and is now one of the venerable and honored citizens of
Hinton. Levi M. Neely was reared and educated in Sum-
mers County, and has long been numbered among the
successful exponents of farm industry in Pipestem Dis-
trict. He is a stalwart republican, and his religious faith
is that of the Baptist Church. His first wife, Alice V.,
died in 1901, at the age of thirty-five years, and later
he was united in marriage with Mrs. Willie Neely, a widow.
Of his eight children six are living: William Clyde and
Richard Claude are twins, and they are associated in the
clothing business at Hinton, individual mention of them
being made on other pages of this volume; Dr. Robert S.,
of this review, was the next in order of birth; Zina Carl
is a business man in Hinton; Mabel is the wife of William
C. Eubanks, of Huntington; Dewey G. is a clerk in the
clothing store of his brothers; Luther F., who died in
1906, at the age of twenty-three years, was at the time
engaged in the contracting business at Kansas City, Mis-
souri; and Herbert L., who died at the age of thirty-five
years, was superintendent for a prominent firm of con-
tractors in the City of Washington, D. C.
After having attended the public schools of Hinton
Dr. Robert S. Neely was for some time a student in the
Concord State Normal School, and in preparation for his
chosen profession he entered the dental department of the
University of Cincinnati, Ohio. He later transferred to
the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, and in this institu-
tion he was graduated as a member of the class of 1914.
Upon thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Dental Sur-
gery he forthwith opened an office at Hinton, where he
has since continued his successful professional work as
one of the representative dentists of his native county.
He has insistently kept in touch with the great advances
made in both operative and laboratory dentistry, and in
this connection it should be noted that he has taken effec-
tive post-graduate courses in leading dental colleges and
clinic in Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and Boston. In
his large and important practice he has had as his pro-
fessional coadjutor since 1919 Dr. D. B. Keaton, under
the firm name of Neely & Keaton. While still a boy Doctor
Neely became associated with his brothers Claude and
Clyde in the retail grocery business, and when he finally
sold his interest in this business he utilized the money
thus received to defer the expenses of his course in dental
college. He is a member of the Greenbrier Valley Dental
Society, the West Virginia State Dental Society and the
National Dental Society. From his early youth he has
been an ardent worker in the ranks of the republican party,
and after service as a member of the city republican com-
mittee of Hinton he became a member of the county commit-
tee, of which latter he is now chairman, an office in which
he has shown much finesse in maneuvering political forces
at his command. The doctor is one of the vigorous mem-
bers of the Hinton Chamber of Commerce, is a charter
member of the local Rotary Club, is a member of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in the Ma-
sonic fraternity he is affiliated with both York and Scottish
Rite bodies, including the Commandery of Knights Templars
at Hinton, the Consistory, A. A. S. R., at Wheeling, and
also the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. He holds
membership in the Presbyterian Church, and his wife is
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The year 1915 recorded the marriage of Doctor Neely and
Miss Nell McDowell, daughter of J. W. McDowell, who
resides in Monroe County and who is serving as deputy
collector of internal revenue. Dr. and Mrs. Neely have
two sons, Robert S., Jr., and William Edward.
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