Plainfield

• Wills Creek LakeBuilt 1936 · 900 acres

How Plainfield began

Plainfield stands on the west bank of Wills Creek in Linton Township. The first Plainfield was platted on October 10, 1816 by Thomas Johnson, as executor of Richard Johnson's estate, and Edward Wiggins, about a mile south of the present village, where Johnson built a log tavern that year and became the township's first postmaster in 1819; it never held more than half a dozen houses. Jacobsport was laid out in 1836 by Jacob Waggoner on the creek's east bank and East Plainfield by Thomas Johnson's family about 1840; the two grew together and were incorporated in March 1878 as the single village of Plainfield. The county's first fair was held there in 1850. It had about 300 people in 1880 and 141 in 2020, and the Thomas Johnson House is on the National Register.

Platted 1816, incorporated 1878, by Thomas Johnston and Edward Wiggins.

Where the name comes from

Named, according to the 1881 county history, 'doubtless from the plains surrounding it'; Wikipedia says the same, from its setting upon the plains.

Before the town

The 1909 county history lists vanished earthworks in the neighbourhood: on the plains of Linton Township, at the cross roads half a mile southwest of Plainfield, a square of several acres enclosed by four embankments six feet high with an entrance at each corner, since plowed down; a circle several miles down Wills Creek; a small mound near Plainfield opened about seventy years before (so about the 1830s) by J. D. Workman, who found stone relics; and another mound two miles below, reported opened by Wesley Patrick, who found a skull and thigh bone of unusual size. The compiler gives no culture or date. No historic village is recorded at Plainfield in the sources checked; the Delaware (Lenape) towns of the county lay at the Muskingum forks and on the Walhonding. The land was ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

• Square earthwork on the Linton Township plains (earthwork) — cross roads half a mile southwest of Plainfield, prehistoric; undated, plowed down by 1909 (archive.org)
• Small mound near Plainfield (mound) — near Plainfield, opened by J. D. Workman about seventy years before 1909, prehistoric; undated (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1816 — Thomas Johnston and Edward Wiggins lay out the original village of Plainfield.
2. 1816-10-10 — Old Plainfield is platted, about a mile south of the present village on the west bank of Wills Creek, with twelve lots on each side of Coshocton Street and nine on Water Street.
3. 1816 — Thomas Johnson builds a two-story hewed-log tavern, the first house, and moves his distillery to the village; Plainfield lies on the road between Zanesville and Philadelphia.
4. 1817 — Dwight Hutchinson of Cambridge opens a store managed by Joseph White, and John Vernon builds the first frame house in the township.
5. 1818 — Benjamin Chambers of New York starts the township's first tannery in Plainfield, grinding bark under a horse-drawn stone wheel.
6. 1819-11-27 — Thomas Johnson is appointed first postmaster in Linton Township at Plainfield.
7. c. 1824 — Thomas Johnson and Jacob Waggoner build a mill of four run of buhrs on Wills Creek, the first mill of note in the township.
8. 1833 — The village has one store and one tavern.
9. 1834 — A wooden toll bridge is built over Wills Creek at Jacobsport through the efforts of Thomas Johnson, replacing a ferry.
10. 1836-08 — Jacob Waggoner lays out Jacobsport on the east side of Wills Creek; Butler & Shook open its first store about 1839.
11. c. 1840 — Thomas Johnson's family lays out lots next to Jacobsport that John M. Johnson later records as East Plainfield; the two grow into one village.
12. 1850 — The first Coshocton County fair is held at Plainfield.
13. 1852 — Plainfield Masonic Lodge No. 224 is chartered; its charter burns the same year and is reissued October 20, 1853.
14. 1870 — Wolfe & Williams build a steam saw and planing mill in Plainfield; a grist mill is added in 1878.
15. 1878 — Plainfield is incorporated as a village.
16. 1878-03 — Jacobsport and East Plainfield are incorporated as one village under the name Plainfield; J. A. Mayhugh is the first mayor.
17. 1879 — Linton Township builds a two-story township hall next to the village.
18. 1880 — Plainfield has about 300 people, three stores, two mills, a tannery, two hotels, two churches and three physicians.
19. 1982 — The Thomas Johnson House, on State Route 541 near Plainfield, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (May 14).
20. 2020 — Plainfield has 141 residents.

Stories

Two proprietors on the plains

In 1816, Thomas Johnston and Edward Wiggins laid out a village on the level ground along Wills Creek and named it plainly for its setting -- Plainfield. Growth was slow: by 1833 the place supported only a single store and a single tavern. It took until 1878 for the village to formally incorporate. The Johnson name persisted on the landscape near the village, attached today to the Thomas Johnson House on the state route outside town, one of Coshocton County's National Register listings.

Three villages that became one

Plainfield was laid out in 1816 on the west bank of Wills Creek, with a log tavern, a store, a tannery and a distillery, on a road much traveled between Zanesville and Philadelphia, but for some reason it was not a success and never had many more than half a dozen houses. Downstream, Jacob Waggoner platted Jacobsport on the east bank in 1836, and Thomas Johnson, who ran mills and a store beside it, laid out lots next to it that his son John recorded as East Plainfield. Jacobsport was hemmed in by the creek, while East Plainfield had a whole quarter section to grow into, and each kept its own name in common speech even though it was one village. In March 1878 the whole was incorporated under the old name Plainfield, with J. A. Mayhugh as mayor. By 1881, the county historian said, it was as good a business center as any in the county away from Coshocton.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Coshocton County on the full map

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Millers Acres Home Owner Association100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2022-05-03; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-18
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-11-06

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Plainfield, Coshocton County and its school district:

• Coshocton County: Renews a 3-mill property tax levy for the EMS of Coshocton County for 5 years, beginning in 2027.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

Cite this page