Settlers from the Carolinas built Old Pleasant Grove Primitive Baptist Church in 1824, making it the first church in the Cowpen Creek area and one of the earliest churches in Lauderdale County. The cemetery was likely established before the church was constructed, and its earliest recorded burial is Sarah "Sallie" Richardson, who died July 23, 1834, the daughter of Isham and Sarah Garner Richardson. Stephen Richardson, a brother of Isham, was buried here in 1840, and Sarah "Sallie" Richardson Myrick, a sister of Stephen and Isham, died before the 1850 census and is also buried here. On October 22, 1861, John and Rachel Lawson sold two acres of land to Isham Richardson, a deacon of the church, to expand the cemetery. Approximately 150 people are buried there, including many Cowpen Creek area settlers from the Clemmons, Bradley, Richardson, Lawson, Harvelle, Myrick, Foust, Canerday, Ross, Owens, and Stanford families; some of those buried had settled in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The cemetery also contains the graves of several veterans, including one from the War of 1812, several Confederate soldiers, and one Union soldier.