Salem Methodist Church was founded by 1818 and held its early services in a brush arbor, with the first permanent sanctuary built nearby. In 1848 Capt. J.D. Allen sold this 4-acre site to the trustees for $1.00, and the present church was built soon afterward and has since been renovated several times. The cemetery dates from 1856, and its first burials were the young children of Henry and Mary Ann Hartzog. Four members later became ministers: Revs. Charles Wilson (1802-1873), Jeremiah W. Collins (1824-1880), Holland Nimmons McTyeire (1824-1889), and B.T. Huggins (1922-2008). McTyeire, who was born on a nearby farm, served as a Methodist bishop from 1866 until his death and is best known as the father of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, which he founded in 1873.