Henry Warren Payne (1833-1898) and W.M. Conner gave the land for a church and cemetery. In 1871 a church house used as a school was erected. The custom of fencing cemetery plots began in 1872 with the burial in the first marked grave of the son of James E. and Ann Payne Ashby. After a fire, Payne rode door-to-door raising money for a new church house, which was built in 1884. The Mt. Vernon Baptist Church officially organized in 1888. Land from Louisiana and Texas Lumber Co. enlarged the cemetery. In 1960 this building was erected.