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 sitting as judges under appointment by Lilburn Boggs the Governor of Missouri. John Reed was made presiding judge, Thomas Mosely, Jr. clerk, John Haskins assessor, and Isaac Gibson 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, and 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 occupied in March 1841. In 1840, Lemuel B. Hearrell conducted a school on Hickory Creek, which at times numbered forty pupils. 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 1842, he opened the first school in Neosho and taught Latin and higher mathematics. The Southern Methodist presence in the area dates to 1845.