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 and over 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 afterward became the "Neosho Herald" and was removed in 1861 to Arkansas, where the material was captured by the Union Army.