In the late 1840's, Captain John Townsend and his wife, Nancy, brought their family and slaves to this area from North Florida. The log home they built became the center of a pioneer community and a refuge from unfriendly Indians. After 1865, when the Townsends moved to a new home nearby, settlers built another Townsend House for use as a Methodist church and a three-month-term school. The present building was constructed about 1880 on land donated by Joshua Mizell. The cemetery has been in use since before 1854, and the area also was the site of a substantial Indian settlement in the sixteenth century.