Missionaries sent in 1821 to establish the Turnip Mountain Mission to the Cherokees first lived on this site, just north of the cemetery wall, before the mission, later known as Haweis, was built two miles to the east. Sardis Presbyterian Church was organized in November 1836, and its first building, a log structure covered with plank, stood north of the church. The present building was erected in 1855. The Sardis Brigade of the 6th Georgia Calvary was organized here on May 9th 1861. Of the more than 235 graves in the cemetery, 18 have been identified as those of Confederate veterans. The church became inactive in 1979, and in 1989 it was deeded to the Sardis Preservation Society. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places of the United States Department of the Interior in January 2005.