Neosho ( , ) is the most populous city in and the county seat of Newton County, Missouri, United States. With a population of 12,590 as of the 2020 census, the city is a part of the Joplin metropolitan area, a region with an estimated 176,849 residents, as of 2011. Neosho lies on the western edge of the Ozarks, in the far southwest of the state.
Description The name "Neosho" is derived from the Osage "Ne-u-zhu", meaning "clear, cold water", "many waters", or "the meeting of waters", and refers to local freshwater springs. The springs attracted varying cultures of Native American inhabitants for thousands of years. The Osage Nation had long occupied the territory at the time of European contact.
European-American settlers, also attracted to the springs, founded the community of Neosho in 1833., National Park Service It was incorporated as a municipality 1878. Nicknamed "City of Springs", Neosho was historically an agricultural center. Since 1888, it has been the site of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery, the oldest in the National Fish Hatchery System.
It is known locally as the "Gateway to the Ozarks". Since 1957, it has also been identified as "the Flower Box City".
History
Settlement: 1829−1845 Starting in the late 1820s, European-American settlers of English, Scottish, German, Welsh, and Scots-Irish ancestry began moving into the area. The first of these settlers was Lunsford Oliver, who migrated from Tennessee in 1829 and located near Shoal Creek. He was the namesake for Oliver's Prairie. His nearest neighbors were in Springfield, sixty miles to the east. In 1831 he was joined by Nathaniel Turner, John Smith, Joseph Ross, Campbell Pure, Blake Wilson, Levi Lee, Carmac Ratcliffe, and George McInturf. McInturf built a corn mill, the first mill of any kind in the region. Soon afterward came Mathew H. Ritchie, who founded the town of Newtonia near Oliver's Prairie, and John W. McCord, who settled near Walbridge Spring with Levie Lee and founded the town Neosho to the west. In these years, the region was called "Six Bulls", a colloquial reference to "six boils", referring to the large streams that flowed through the area – Shoal Creek, Center Creek, Indian Creek, Spring River, and North Fork.
By 1835, at least three schools had been established along Shoal Creek, and a teacher named Billingsley taught near Neosho. The earliest known religious effort dates to 1836, when Methodist Circuit riders visited the area and held meetings in settlers' log cabins.
In 1843, Rev. Anthony Bewley was appointed to the Neosho and Granby circuit, establishing the first permanent churches in Six Bulls. Rev. John W. McCord was involved in organizing Neosho Presbytery, a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation at New Salem Campground, on May 15, 1837. These early settlers were sometimes visited by Native Americans from the Southeast United States, who had been relocated from Georgia to the Indian Territory a few miles west of later Kansas under the Indian Removal Act. They periodically came into the area on hunting expeditions.
Newton County was originally contained in Crawford County and afterward in Barry County. As the population increased, it was separated from Barry County on December 31, 1838, and established as a county under its present name. It was named in honor of American Revolutionary War veteran Sergeant John Newton. He was a comrade of Sergeant William Jasper, who is memorialized at Fort Moultrie. Later the counties of Jasper, McDonald, and Barton, were successively created from some of Newton's territory.
The first county court session was held at Reed's residence on April 13, 1839, Judge Foster P. Wright presiding. John Reed, Hugh Shannon, and Jacob Testerman sat as judges under appointment by Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri. John Reed was made presiding judge, Thomas Mosely Jr., appointed as clerk; John Haskins, as assessor; and Isaac Gibson as sheriff. Townships were established and roads laid out by this body.
On November 12, the commissioners reported Neosho as the permanent seat of justice, and James Wilson was appointed a special commissioner to lay out the town. The first elected county judges were Edward V. Warren, Larkin Newton, Samuel V. Warren, and Samuel M. Cooley, with Milton Sexton as clerk in 1840. That same year, Milton Sexton, as superintendent, built the first courthouse, a log structure that was occupied in March 1841. In 1841, Charles S. Yancey became circuit judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District, to which Newton County was attached. The first state representative was John Wilson.
In 1840, Lemuel B. Hearrell conducted a school at Hickory Creek, which at times numbered forty pupils. In 1842, Wilson opened the first school in Neosho. He taught classical Latin and higher mathematics. The Methodist Church was active in the area from 1845.
During the 1840s, lead was discovered and entrepreneurs developed mining here. Neosho's early commercial development was dominated by lead and zinc mining. Newton County established one of Missouri's earliest commercial operations. Lead was transported by wagon from Neosho to Indian Territory, then shipped down the Arkansas River and Mississippi River to New Orleans. French colonists had conducted lead mining further east in Missouri before the United States acquired the territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
Realignment: 1846−1861
In 1846, a strip wide was detached from northern Newton and attached to southern Jasper County. A survey of the community was undertaken in 1846 by F. M. Duncan, who laid out the courthouse square and surrounding blocks. According to the survey, the town covered an area of about and was laid off beginning at the "west edge of the large spring and ... northeast of a large white oak", which included land originally belonging to John McCord.
Part of McCord's relinquished land was returned to him. He subdivided it to take advantage of development related to nearby Neosho. This subdivision, later incorporated into the city limits, is still called "McCord's Addition to Neosho". On August 20, 1847, Neosho was legally incorporated with William C. Jones, Jackson C. McKay, Samuel Rice, William B. Holmes, and William B. Mooney as trustees.
The first Baptist congregation was organized at Neosho in 1847, with the Rev. W.H. Farmer as pastor. He served until 1859.
In 1849, McDonald County was created by an act of the state legislature from the southern portion of Newton County, reducing it to its present dimensions. The same act named John Williams of Taney County, James Williams of Barry County, and Chesley Cannifex of Greene County as commissioners to locate the seat of justice within of the new geographical center of the county. They designated the temporary seat at the home of John Reed, one and one-half miles east of the present site of downtown Neosho. Later the same year, a log jail was built.
The design of the courthouse square followed that of the Shelbyville Square Plan, which has lots arranged to face a central courthouse block. A brick courthouse built in 1850 at a cost of $3,000 replaced the earlier log structure. During the next decade, numerous residential and commercial buildings were constructed in and around the courthouse square. The first newspaper printed in the county was the Neosho Chief, founded in 1854 by J. Webb Graves. It was renamed as the Neosho Herald and was removed in 1861 to Arkansas after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Its records were captured by the Union Army.
By special act passed on August 3, 1854, Congress laid out a monthly Pony Express mail route from Neosho to Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorizing an annual budget of $17,000. After the Mexican–American War and the acquisition by the US of the southwest territory, this region became of great commercial and military importance. But the Pony Express route was not a commercial success. In March of the following year, the route was changed to run from Independence to Stockton, California, via Albuquerque.
Civil War: 1861−1865 During the Civil War, the county was occupied alternately by the opposing forces. Several engagements were fought in and around Neosho, Newtonia, and Granby, at some places more than once. In addition, frequent skirmishes took place between small units and raids by area bandits. The schools were closed during the war, and most of the schoolhouses destroyed. The new courthouse was occupied by troops of both armies during the war and finally destroyed . After the war, the county records were found intact in a cell in the jail. R.W. Ellis, the county clerk, had concealed them there before he left to join the Confederate Army in 1861.
On July 3, 1861, the Union force of Col. Franz Sigel moved from Neosho to find and trap Gov Jackson's Missouri State Guard force, reported to be somewhere near Lamar, Missouri. Sigel believed that another Union force should be chasing them from their Union victory at Boonville on June 17. Col. Sigel knew that Sterling Price and another Confederate Army were south of his position, so he garrisoned Neosho. Captain Conrad and his Rifle Company B of the 3rd Missouri Infantry, numbering about 80 men, were selected.
When Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch agreed to General Price's request for assistance with the Missouri State Guard, he moved north. Hearing of the Union force at Neosho, they sent four companies of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles and Cpt. Carroll's Company of Arkansas State troops to capture them. On July 5, the garrison sent forces north to Carthage to ascertain the situation, as the Battle of Carthage was ongoing. Col. McIntosh ordered a two-pronged advance to Neosho, but the western force found its route longer than expected. McIntosh ordered the surrender of the company of Union troops as his Mounted Infantry companies came within two hundred yards of the court house, where the Union force was stationed. With no pickets to the south and a force to the west of town, the Confederates accepted unconditional surrender just as the second force arrived on scene. Captain Conrad's men were paroled on July 8 and were escorted the first four miles to protect them from numerous threats against their lives made by Neosho locals. The Union troops marched unarmed to Springfield, making 85 miles in 50 hours.
On October 21, Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson and the pro-Southern members of the Missouri General Assembly, who had been forced to flee from Jefferson City when the Union Army approached, held their next to last legislative session at Neosho. On October 28, 1861, they established a provisional capital in Neosho.
Governor Jackson and the Missouri General Assembly met in the Masonic Hall, numbering thirty-nine members of the House and ten of the Senate. They passed an ordinance of secession and the event was celebrated with cannon firing by General Sterling Price's State Guardsmen who were camped in the adjacent hills. The Confederate States government accepted the results of the vote, and Missouri was admitted as the 12th state of the Confederacy. However, the pro-Union members of the General Assembly had already convened, and supported by the occupying Union troops, had declared Jackson removed from office, as well as all who favored the South. The pro-Union members then set up a their own provisional government and appointed Hamilton R. Gamble to be governor. Missouri would have three governors during the course of the Civil War, one elected by the people (Jackson) and two appointed by the pro-Union government (Gamble and William Preble Hall).
General Price made an effort to organize a Confederate defense of Missouri and initially succeeded, but any chance for concerted pro-Southern action ended when he was defeated in March 1862 at Pea Ridge.