Mt. Paran Church was incorporated on September 18, 1841. Before 1841, the church was called Soldier’s Delight, and that congregation began circa 1776. The oldest legible tombstone is that of Robert Gilchrist, dated October 17, 1767. The oldest known deed refers to this area as the Plains of Paran and records its use as a place of worship and burial by the Society of Christians called Presbyterians on May 4, 1784.