British forces crossed the creek here on September 30, 1778, near the site of the earlier Spanish settlement of Mission San Carlos. The interpretive panel can be viewed at the east end of the historic cemetery.

This historic Primitive Baptist Church was organized in 1848, just three years after Florida gained its statehood. It stood near the old Marianna to Vernon Road, which crossed Hard Labor Creek nearby. The Battle of Vernon, a Civil War skirmish, was fought at the creek crossing on September 28, 1864, when Vernon Home Guard battled a large Union column returning from the Battle of Marianna. The battle here is often described in the accounts of the Union raid that crossed Washington County from Pensacola to Marianna by Brig. Gen. Alexander Asboth. It was the deepest penetration of Confederate Florida by Union forces during the Civil War and covered more land miles than Sherman's "March to the Sea." One of the casualties of that skirmish, Stephen Pierce, is buried in the adjacent cemetery. The existing church structure was completed in 1931.