Several early settlers built log and frame homes in the area such as the Bond and Steele families.

Of the homes constructed in the Bethesda area the William Steele House is the most notable and unaltered.

[2]In the spring of 1861 the Webb Guards company of the Tennessee infantry was raised from the towns of Triune, College Grove, Peytonsville and Bethesda.

[3] The William Steele House is located on Bethesda-Arno Road, 1/2 mile east of Bethesda.

In April 2022, runaway fugitive couple Casey and Vicky White also passed through Bethesda on their escape and abandoned their car on Banner Adams Road on the outskirts of town.