Formerly known as Bloody Brook or Muddy Brook, South Deerfield petitioned to be set off from the town of Deerfield in 1809 after a large number of communicants of the First Church of Deerfield living in Bloody Brook withdrew from the church in 1807. They were probably responding to both the distance from the meetinghouse in (Old) Deerfield and to the theology of the new minister, the Reverend Samuel Willard. However, this petition was not granted and South Deerfield is to this day part of the town of Deerfield. The Second Congregational Society was organized at Bloody Brook on June 30, 1818 and their meetinghouse dedicated June 18, 1821.