The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed during the Great Revival of 1800, a wave of religious fervor that caused division within the Presbyterian Church (USA). Revival-minded Presbyteries, including Cumberland, believed the extraordinary circumstances justified relaxing strict educational requirements for ordination. They allowed ministers to be trained locally, often in “saddleback schools” or by other clergy, rather than requiring a classical college education followed by seminary in Pennsylvania, Scotland, or other approved institutions. The anti-revival faction opposed these changes and eventually curtailed the revivalists’ activities. Though they had not intended to form a new denomination, the Cumberland faction became a distinct Presbyterian body, which today has congregations in several countries, with strongholds in the American South.

The first Cumberland Presbyterian minister to settle permanently in Georgia was Rev. Samuel Houston Henry, who organized his first church in 1851. Two years later, he founded another congregation just south of Calhoun in Gordon County, known as Liberty Cumberland, or the White Church. This was the second Cumberland church established in Georgia. By then, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians were spreading across northwest Georgia, often using camp meetings to attract large gatherings, some of which evolved into permanent churches. Liberty soon joined the Georgia Presbytery.

The founding families came from Tennessee and North Carolina, settling in the upper reaches of Springtown Valley. In October 1859, the congregation purchased one acre from V. H. Cain for one dollar to build their meeting house, adding more land in 1860.

Local history recalls an unusual Civil War incident: During a spring revival led by Rev. Allison Templeton, a group of Confederate soldiers entered the church. Soon after, Union troops arrived. Templeton invited all present to join the service. When the call to the mourners’ bench came, soldiers from both sides sat side by side. At the service’s end, each group departed in peace, heading in opposite directions. Whether entirely factual or not, it remains a poignant story of unity amid conflict. Through times of prosperity and hardship, Liberty Cumberland has stood for over 150 years, well-maintained as a testament to its role in the spiritual life of northwest Georgia.