Methodism in the Leighton area predated the creation of Colbert County, and local Methodists helped raise $10,000 to persuade the Tennessee Methodist Conference to build LaGrange College, which opened in 1830. In 1837, William Leigh donated a one-acre lot on County Line Rd. in Leighton for a brick building to serve local denominations and the Masons. By 1902, under Rev. J.A. Brock and with a membership of 168, the congregation of Leighton Methodist Episcopal Church, South, chose to build a new church on that lot. Its building committee included Thos. Lile, Claude King, F.R. King, J.H. Hall, D.L. Spangler, and J.A. Lindsey, and J.B. Carr & Co. of Birmingham designed a 400-seat sanctuary with an elevated choir alcove, Sabbath school rooms, and a pastor's study. Construction began in May 1903, the marble cornerstone was laid on Sept. 14, 1903, and the church was completed at a basic cost of $6,200; the Ladies Aid Society raised additional money for curved cathedral pews matching the altar, and congregants bought stained glass windows as memorials. The first service was held on March 20, 1904. Early church families included Brock, Rand, Delony, Irwin, Lowe, Lile, Cribbs, Connell, Gilchrist, Madding, Kumpe, Windham, Munro, Fennel, Preuit, King, Vinson, Jones, Hall, Means, Goodwin, Ricks, Hubbard, Smith, Henry, Scruggs, Stoves, Morris, Doan, Higdon, Felton, Moore, Spangler, Madden, Lindsey, Kimbell, Davis, Heflin, Hampton, Harned, Wallace, McCormack, Gargis, and Stansell. A fellowship hall was added in 1939 during the pastorate of Rev. Marvin Heflin, George H. Gibbens placed wooden carvings above the altar in 1966, the Emmitt King home next door was given as a parsonage and later became the family life center, and Mildred Fennel Preuit donated a lot for the next parsonage. The church's name changed to Leighton Methodist Church in 1939 and to Leighton United Methodist Church in 1968, and its centennial celebration on June 22, 2003, included the ringing of the old bell, worship, and lunch.