Methodist worship in Whitesville began about 1828 in meetings at the home of Reuben Mobley. The First Methodist Church was founded in the early 1830s, and by 1837 the growing congregation decided to build a church on land donated by a trustee. That first church was used until 1854, when the current building was completed. The church was the early church of Rev. William Jackson Callahan, an 1891 Emory graduate who was a missionary in Japan, and Rev. Charles L. Allen, later pastor of Grace Methodist Church in Atlanta and a well-known author, preached his first sermon here. The church has remained in active use as a Methodist church since its dedication. The adjacent cemetery predates the church building and includes burial markings ranging from early stacked stone and brick graves to metal mail-order grave markers. Numerous family plots are defined by retaining walls, copings, and iron fencing, and many graves are unmarked because uninscribed fieldstone markers were inadvertently removed. The earliest burial date on a marker is 1844 for Reuben Mobley, one of the church founders.