Lebanon Baptist Church stood on this site after being constituted on December 1, 1848, and served both white and black congregations in the Lebanon community, with the black congregations traditionally worshiping at separate times until 1871, when the black congregation requested and received a letter of dismissal, took the name New Lebanon Baptist Church, and moved to Plains on Bottsford Road. In 1889 the white congregation also moved its place of worship to Plains, and in 1909 changed its name to Plains Baptist Church. The historic cemetery contains the graves of doctors, state senators, war veterans, bank presidents, mayors, ministers, farmers, leading educators, and many members of the families of President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Smith Carter. It is one of only five cemeteries in the United States where the parents of both a U.S. President and First Lady are buried. The oldest grave, dated April 30, 1856, is that of Thomas Green Hudson, father of Milton Leander Hudson, founder of the town of Plains. The towering tombstones of Dr. Burr Thomas Wise and Daniel F. Faust are believed to be the two tallest in a Sumter County cemetery. Today, two distinct sections of Lebanon Cemetery contain approximately 2,000 graves.