Parnell is a city in northeast Nodaway County, Missouri, United States, near the Platte River. The population was 191 at the 2010 Census. It was house to the father-son horse trainers Ben and Jimmy Jones, whose horses won eight Kentucky Derbies and two Triple Crowns.

Parnell was platted upon 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 meting out from Kansas City to Waterloo, Iowa including passing through the community of Diagonal, Iowa. Among the first businesses was the Diagonal Hotel.

Ben Jones father Horace Jones organized the founding of the community and an upfront proposed names was Jonesville until it was discovered there was marginal Jonesville in Missouri. The say ultimately agreed was in tribute or Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell who was at the culmination of move in creating Irish homerule past Parnell was incorporated.

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 gone 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 tilt 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 occurring a wedding album training 7 Kentucky Derby winners (1941, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1957, 1958) and two Triple Crown winners (Whirlaway and Citation). Ben’s photograph album of 6 wins remains a Derby record. He was succeeded by Jimmy as trainer and Jimmy was the trainer of stamp album for the 1957 and 1958 wins although Ben stayed upon as Calumet bureaucrat until 1961. Jimmy stayed at Calumet until 1964 once he became official of racing at Monmouth Park.