The origins of Rush Chapel date back to the earliest days of Floyd County. In the 1830s, five families, the Aycocks, Davenports, Listers, Rushes, and Watters, settled in the area and discovered they were all Methodists. Their shared faith led to the founding of Rush Chapel Methodist Episcopal in 1838. John Rush arrived in Floyd County that same year, while Joseph Watters is believed to have come around 1833, shortly after the area was opened for settlement. Watters is thought to have been involved in the 1838 removal of the Cherokee people. His home, built around 1840 and called “The Hermitage” in honor of Andrew Jackson, still stands today, as does the Rush home.

That first year, the congregation purchased an acre from Col. Isaac Fetten and built a log church, naming it Rush Chapel. By the mid-1800s, two structures stood near each other—a church and an academy. The academy burned in 1861 and was never rebuilt. The log church was replaced with a frame structure in 1845, and an addition was made in 1861. In those days, the pulpit was at the front, the congregation faced the doors, men and women sat separately, and African American worshipers had their own section. The current structure was built in 1910.

Floyd County itself was created in 1832, just two years after Georgia extended its jurisdiction over Cherokee lands. Named for General John Floyd, the county was part of a broader division of former Cherokee territory. The Cherokee removal, culminating in the Trail of Tears in 1838–1839, was driven by the demand for cotton land, the discovery of gold on Cherokee territory, and widespread prejudice. Thousands were forced from their ancestral homelands to what is now Oklahoma, a profound tragedy in Georgia’s history. For more than 180 years, Rush Chapel has remained a place of worship and community. Its survival is a testament to the generations of congregants who have preserved both its structure and its story.