Neosho

City and seat of Newton County, in southwestern Missouri, on the Ozark Plateau, 26 km/16 mi southeast of Joplin; population (1990) 9,300. The city's name refers to a spring that is located here.

Neosho was the site of an ineffectual attempt at secession from the Union by a pro-Confederate convention in 1861. The artist Thomas Hart Benton, famous for his paintings of Midwestern life, was born here in 1889. Situated in an area of fruit growing, dairy farming, and forestry, the city is a market centre.