Colonists settled along the fertile Donahoe Creek in the late 1840s. Samuel Gibbs Leatherman (1799-1888) arrived in 1854 and opened the first mercantile store, gave land for the cemetery, and brought in the first doctor. In 1880 he donated land for the schoolhouse, which also served as a church until 1911, when Thomas Jefferson Jones and his wife gave this site for the Baptist church. Donahoe boasted a town square, post office, telephone system and voting precinct, but with the coming of good roads to other towns, the community declined, leaving only the cemetery.