On April 24, 1855, Irby Hudson Scott deeded three and three-quarter acres in the Tompkins District of Putnam County, Georgia, to the trustees of a newly organized and consolidated Methodist Episcopal group for the erection of a church building. The congregation united members from the small Bethel Church on Hearn family land and Rock Chapel on the ridge road, now Uncle Remus U.S. Highway 441, and built a house of worship on Scott’s land. The building, still in excellent condition, was constructed of heart pine lumber, with hand-hewn and pinned sills and framework, hand-planed pews and door and window facing, and doors and triple-sash windows said to have been made in Augusta, Georgia, and hauled overland to the site. The pulpit Bible was presented in 1855, and the first pastor was the Rev. Henry Morton. By 1867, Union Chapel had a Sunday school, with Cullen S. Credille serving as superintendent of the male members and Mary Scott as superintendent of the female members. Many years ago, the interior orientation was reversed, moving the pulpit from before the high windows between the two front doors to the opposite end of the building, where a new pulpit and communion rail were installed and a center door was removed and closed. On August 13, 1913, after a delegation of 25 men from the Reid’s Crossroad community asked the Putnam County Board of Education for a better local school, the board voted to build one at Union Chapel. Robert E. Vining built the school, which opened in November 1913 with Miss Fannie Mae Jones as its first teacher and operated continuously until county school consolidation closed it on May 25, 1946; since then, it has been used as Sunday school space. For generations, Union Chapel Church and school have been important parts of the community.