About 1850, near a spring at the foot of this hill, early settlers of this area gathered for Methodist camp meetings. According to local tradition it was at one of these meetings that a lady's remark that "this is a pleasant place," resulted in Gideon edwards, the owner of the land, calling the site Pleasant Hill. The Rev. Carter (McCarter) organized the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal Church in 1854. In that year Gideon and Jane Edwards deeded five acres here to the newly formed Methodist Church for sanctuary and cemetery purposes. a log sanctuary was built in 1854. The first recorded burial was that of Robert L. McGill in 1864. In 1874 Texas Governor Richard Coke spoke to about 1100 people who gathered here to dedicate the placement in the church belfry of a bell made in England. The church built a new sanctuary in 1880 and added board planks to its arbor in 1888. A later church building was razed about 1950, the time the congregation is believed to have disbanded. The bell was subsequently repositioned atop the improved arbor. The beloved bell was sold to a resident of nearby Mt. Vernon in 1974. Pleasant Hill Cemetery, which contains the graves of veterans of the civil War, World Wars I & II, and the Korean Conflict, continues to serve the community. (1993)