Archibald and Mary Greathouse settled in this area in 1848 and gave their name to a creek and the rural community that grew up here. The church, school, and cemetery that became the focal point of community life stood on land deeded in 1881 by Ezekiel M. Brack and on property deeded later by Martin Judy Dawson and George W. Whitefield. John Edward Dawson hauled lumber from Waxahachie by oxcart to build the Greathouse Missionary Baptist Church, and early church leaders included Martin Judy Dawson, Jr., Caswell R. Tirey, Thomas A. Tirey, and the Rev. John Bailey as first pastor. In the 1890s, a school began in the church building. The oldest known grave in the cemetery is that of Nancy Caroline Sims, who died in 1881. When the railroad reached nearby Maypearl in 1904, many residents moved there and Greathouse began to decline. The school closed in 1912, the church about 1927, and the frame building was razed in 1958. A cemetery association formed in 1974 maintains the burial ground. The community produced four Christian ministers, including the prominent Baptist leader the Rev. Joseph M. Dawson, as well as the Rev. Everett H. Tirey, the Rev. J.W. Whitefield, Jr., and the Rev. Austin Woodard, and another resident, Judge Jake Tirey, served on the Texas Court of Civil Appeals.