In early Texas, when most citizen interactions with government took place at the county seat, smaller counties were more convenient for residents. Before 1841, each county had at least one congressman, but because the Republic of Texas constitution limited Congress to 40 members, Spring Creek and 15 other new counties were created as judicial counties that provided court and government services while congressional districts remained unchanged, leaving some congressmen to represent multiple counties. On January 21, 1841, at the request of 130 male residents of Harris and Montgomery counties, Congress created Spring Creek County, extending from the head of Spring Creek near Waller to its mouth near Humble, and from Lake Creek in the north to just south of Cypress Top. Its county seat was to be a new town named Greenville, one-quarter mile south of Spring Creek near today's Rose Hill. George W. Cropper, Isaac Decker, William Pierpont, Abram Roberts, and Archibald Smith were named county commissioners, and James Cooper was appointed chief justice. On May 8, 1841, William B. Reeves was elected district clerk, Thomas M. Hogan county clerk, Alexander F. Barron sheriff, Jason Whitney coroner, Eugene Pillot surveyor, and Nathaniel H. Carrol, Samuel Davis, James Dickson, Henry T. Mostyn, Claude N. Pillot, and John Simmons justices of the peace. Because each county did not have its own congressman, the Republic of Texas Supreme Court declared the judicial counties unconstitutional on February 4, 1842, and their lands reverted to their parent counties. Although many former judicial counties were recreated after statehood, Spring Creek County alone remained almost entirely within its parent counties.