Editing Parnell, Missouri (section)

==History==
Parnell was platted on July 5, 1887 as a station stop on the [[Chicago Great Western Railway]] and it was formally incorporated in 1888.  The Chicago Great Western route passing through the community was called the Diagonal Route.  It ran at northeast direction from Kansas City to [[Waterloo, Iowa]] including passing through the community of [[Diagonal, Iowa]].  Among the first businesses was the Diagonal Hotel.<ref name="maryvilledailyforum.com">[http://www.maryvilledailyforum.com/x1394808880/How-well-do-you-know-Nodaway-County-history Article title]{{dead link|date=September 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wc.k12.mo.us/History/his43.htm |title=Sheridan's Railroad |access-date=2013-05-04 |archive-date=2013-06-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619123022/http://wc.k12.mo.us/History/his43.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Ben Jones father Horace Jones organized the founding of the community and an early proposed names was Jonesville until it was discovered there was another Jonesville in Missouri.  The name ultimately chosen was in honor or Irish politician [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] who was at the peak of influence in creating Irish homerule when Parnell was incorporated.<ref name="maryvilledailyforum.com"/>

The elder Horace Jones started a ranch on the northeast side of Parnell where he raised Angus cattle and saddle horses.  At the ranch Ben (along with his son Horace "Jimmy") trained a horse named Seth which was in the top 20 of the national thoroughbred sires list from 1925 to 1928.  This in turn got the attention of [[Herbert M. Woolf]], owner of [[Woolford Farm]] in [[Prairie Village, Kansas]] and Ben trained [[Lawrin]] which won the Kentucky Derby in 1938.  The two were lured by [[Warren Wright, Sr.]] to train horses at [[Calumet Farm]] in 1939 where they racked up a record training 7 Kentucky Derby winners (1941, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1957, 1958) and two Triple Crown winners ([[Whirlaway]] and [[Citation (horse)|Citation]]).  Ben's record of 6 wins remains a Derby record.  He was succeeded by Jimmy as trainer and Jimmy was the trainer of record for the 1957 and 1958 wins although Ben stayed on as Calumet manager until 1961.  Jimmy stayed at Calumet until 1964 when he became manager of racing at [[Monmouth Park]].<ref name="stfrancismaryville.com">http://www.stfrancismaryville.com/AboutUs/Documents/Jimmy%20Jones%20web.pdf{{dead link|date=July 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

After he retiring in 1976 Jimmy returned to 1,750 acre ranch in Parnell.  He sold the ranch in 1986.  He had no children and died in [[Maryville, Missouri]] in 2001.  He left $7.2 million to St. Francis Hospital there.<ref name="stfrancismaryville.com"/>