This congregation existed as a mission church by 1880. In 1896, A.L. and Susanna Herrington donated one acre to the county for a free school, and a one-room school building was erected on Walnut Creek twelve miles north of Palestine that also served as a church meeting place. The community was known as Mount Vernon, and the Methodist church took that name as well. In 1907, the one-room building was moved two miles north of its original location, and two rooms were added for the growing school. The congregation continued meeting there until 1913, when this site across the road from the school building was deeded to the Mount Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a sanctuary was completed that same year. Over the years, the church maintained active programs, served as a training ground for many young ministers and student pastors from nearby Lon Morris College, and for more than one hundred years served as a center for its rural community.