East Fork Baptist Church was constituted on Saturday, September 15, 1810, in the home of James Chandler on the East Fork of the Amite River. Its charter members were Joseph Chandler, John Wilson, Ephraim Puckett, James Keith, John Prestridge, Lazarus Reeves, Elizabeth Simmons, Martha Wilson, Frances Spurlock, Sarah Keith, Elizabeth Prestridge, Alley Prestridge, Hannah Denman, and Anna Adams. Its first preacher was Revolutionary War veteran Reverend Thomas Mercer.