Parnell is a city in northeast Nodaway County, Missouri, United States, near the Platte River.

Parnell was platted on July 5, 1887 as a station stop on the Chicago Great Western Railway and it was formally incorporated in 1888.

[4] 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).

Jimmy stayed at Calumet until 1964 when he became manager of racing at Monmouth Park.

[6] Parnell is located at the junction of routes 46 and NN one-half mile from the Nodaway-Worth county line.

[7] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.29 square miles (0.75 km2), all land.