The origin of Unity Baptist Church is rooted in the lives and efforts of the earliest settlers of the area. Although these brave men, many along with their families, were motivated by various pursuits, they were able to establish the Poage Settlement, comprised of several thousand acres. Bringing their deep Biblical faith in God and Jesus, these early settlers, led by the Poage family, held regular prayer meetings with the various families that continued to move into the area. After a meeting on June 11, 1819 with the Reverend Robert Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Washington, Kentucky, the first church in the settlement was organized with twenty members. Unity Baptist Church would spring from this small and humble beginning.

In 1837, John Kelley and John Young gathered Baptists in the area to organize Union Baptist Church, which met for the first time in a frame building located at the corner of Blackburn Avenue and Summit Street. Originally a member of the Ohio Baptist Association, Union Baptist Church became the second member church in the Greenup Association of Baptist Churches in 1941 (Palmyra Baptist Church, which is no longer in existence, was the first). The membership later moved into another building on what is now known as Gartin Avenue. John Kelley and John Young shepherded Union Baptist Church until 1840, when Thomas Reynolds was ordained and called to pastor the church. Thomas Kelley Reynolds, Thomas Reynold’s son, was ordained in 1845 and assumed the pastorate.