In the 1850s and 1860s, families settled on farm and ranch land along the Middle Gabriel River where the Old Austin-Lampasas and Burnet-Belton roads intersected. Six acres deeded by Alexander M. Barton in 1877 later became the site of a schoolhouse, church, and cemetery. The community was first called Russell Gabriel, and after the Cumberland Presbyterian Church organized and began meeting in the school building in 1878, the name soon changed to Grove because the schoolhouse stood in a grove of live oak trees. The settlement included a cotton gin and corn mill, a general store and blacksmith shop, a doctor, and a Masonic Lodge. In 1882, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist congregations built a Union Arbor for camp meetings and revivals. For a few months in 1902, a post office operated under the name Tamega because another Shady Grove already existed in Texas, and a general store by that name operated there for 50 years. The Presbyterian fellowship first erected the church structure and then built the tabernacle in 1905. The school consolidated with Bertram in 1942, and when the Presbyterian congregation merged with Bertram in 1966, the property became a community center and homecoming site.