Little Muddy was settled about 1800 by Revolutionary War veterans Thos. Carson, John Helm, and Matthew Kuykendall, who received land grants for their service. These founders of Butler County served as the first county surveyor, presiding justice of county court, and first sheriff. The community was served by a water grist mill built in 1811, a mercantile business established in the 1890s, and a post office from 1893 to 1919. Thomas Carson donated land for a cemetery and Little Muddy Cumberland Presbyterian Church, organized in 1811 from camp meetings that began as early as 1805. Slave church members may have helped construct the brick building, built in 1830, that served as both the church and Little Muddy Academy, one of the oldest buildings in the county. The frame church was built in 1860.