A Methodist church was organized in the Prairie Lea community in 1853, five years after the organization of Caldwell County, by four charter families whose heads were George Francis and Pendleton Rector, veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto; early settler W.F. Happle, on whose land one of the first cemeteries in the area was established; and Dr. James Fentress, a veteran of the Indian Battle of Plum Creek (1840) and the man for whom the nearby town of Fentress is named. Early worship services were held in the area's first schoolhouse, and from 1854 until 1871 the congregation met in the Prairie Lea Academy building. In 1871 area pioneer Thomas Mooney and his sons William Daniel, Samuel Lafayette, and John Keener deeded land at this site for the construction of a sanctuary, with trustees George Francis, Joseph Francis, Wesley Francis, Pendleton Rector, Leroy McLeod, J.J. Smith, Albert C. Johnson, Joseph McCord, and William Happle. The present sanctuary is the second built on this site, and pastors who served the church included noted pioneer Methodist minister Andrew Jackson Potter and the Rev. M.A. Black, who led the dedication service for the current sanctuary after its completion in 1884.