Hickory Grove Baptist Church was an outgrowth of Sunday School and worship services held in the Hickory Grove Schoolhouse in rural Pleasant Hill. In the early summer of 1908, Sterling L. Williams, the pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church heard about some troubles in the Hickory Grove neighborhood and he suggested to the community that he come out on Sunday afternoons to preach in the schoolhouse to "put God into your community and in your lives and homes".

 

On July 5, 1908, Hickory Grove Sunday School was organized with Rev. Williams officiating. Brother T.E. Kelley, a deacon from the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, came on Wednesday evenings to lead prayer meetings, faithfully arriving on horseback or in a small buggy, over bad roads thorugh the heat and cold.  Rev. Williams held three revivals for the church between 1908 and 1910.  He left the church at the close of 1910, but returned in 1914 to preach the dedicatory sermon.