Urban Dwellers in Plainfield, Philadelphia Plainfield's earliest settlers, like many others who pioneered this country, were seeking religious and political freedoms denied them in their own countries. By 1685,seven families (whose name identify them as "all good Scots") established farms along the Cedar Brook. But long before the arrival of the first settlers, Indians had frequented the area in their travels between the Hudson and Delaware rivers. Those living in the Plainfield area were the Watchungs, part of the Lenni-Lenape tribe. They encamped along the Green Brook and in the areas of the Watchung and Park avenues, and Grant and Clinton avenues. The trails they marked out hundreds of years ago ran through the heart of our city. When the railroad was built in the 1800's, it followed that old Indian cut-off to the sea. The new settlement was named Milltown, a reference to the gristmill, which was built in 1760 on the Green Brook, near what is now Watchung Avenue. In 1788, the Quakers moved their Friends Meeting House from the original site near what is today the Plainfield Country Club, to the corner of Watchung Avenue and East Third Street where it remains as one of the historical landmarks of the city. Although the Plainfield area was mostly open farmland with a population of only about 50, it was considered of sufficient military importance during the Revolutionary period to warrant a large militia post.On April 1, 1800, a post office was established and the name of the growing community (pop. 215) was changed to Plainfield, appropriate to the gently rolling fieldsof the area. Plainfield at this time consisted of one Presbyterian church, one Baptist and one Methodist church, two Friend's meeting houses (Hick site and Orthodox), two grist mills, one saw mill, four stores, thirteen master hatters, who manufacture about $74,000 worth of hats annually; five master tailors, employing 70 hands, which work for the southern market; a f...
