The history of Union Church is inseparable from the history of early European settlement in inland Georgia, its story woven with those of the Creek Indians, pioneer settlers, and the development of a rural crossroads community.

In the 1820s, treaties displaced the Creek people from their homelands along the Flint River, opening the way for settlers traveling the Old Federal Road—later called the Old Wire Road—which ran from Fort Hawkins (Macon) to the Alabama River. Families who won land through Georgia’s lotteries moved here, farming the land and intermarrying to establish communities. Among the first were the McCant family, led by matriarch Sarah Black Hamilton McCant, and the Hays family, both of South Carolina origin. Their farming ventures—supported by enslaved labor—helped establish mills, a cotton gin, and the settlement that would become Union.

On March 10, 1840, landowners Robert P. Hays and Jeremiah C. McCants deeded five acres for Hays Church and Campground, the area’s first Methodist church. The first sanctuary, built in 1848, stood on the Old Wire Road and served the community until the Civil War. During the war years, both the Methodist and Primitive Baptist congregations ceased worship; the Methodist church building was even dismantled. In the aftermath, Rev. Hays opened the Primitive Baptist church for monthly joint worship by Baptists and Methodists. From this shared arrangement came the name Union Church.

By 1874, camp meetings were being held on the grounds, and the next year a large heart-pine tabernacle was constructed. Though the camp meetings ended by 1896, a new Methodist church was built in 1883, led by Rev. James Hays, and has remained active ever since.

The building was significantly updated in the 1960s when it was turned to face the road, expanded, and remodeled. Corrine and Harold Jarrell, descendants of the McCant family, oversaw much of the work, which included new pew pillows, air conditioning, Sunday school rooms, and a steeple. In 1973, sixteen stained-glass windows depicting Psalms were installed, gifts from church families.

The Union Church–Hays Campground Cemetery holds over 200 burials, with the oldest dating to 1847. It contains separate sections for white and Black burials, including several rare grave houses. Though the church itself did not qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, the cemetery is listed.

Today, more than 170 years later, Union Church continues to serve its community. Descendants of Sarah McCant still worship here, a living connection across eight generations.