Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Unadilla Forks School. Below: maps from 1907 on and the census since 1820.
Plainfield dates its founding to 1793 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1820.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Plainfield had its own post office from 1809 to 1854. Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Plainfield’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereLaura Fish Judd is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Plainfield.
The town was first settled circa 1793, near Plainfield Center.
Plainfield was established from part of the Town of Richfield in 1799.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Plainfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first church building was erected soon after the organization of tlie society, but upon the formation of the town of Winfield, Herkimer county, in 1816, a part of Plainfield was annexed upon which stood the church. In 1832 the present church building was erected in Unadilla Forks.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
town that our subject was born, March 14, 1817. The elder Brown was a man of great energy, and by his industry and thrift accumulated a sum sufficient to purchase a home and a farm in the town of Plainfield, now owned by our subject. The farm originally consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, to which three hundred and ten acres have been added, and which is considered to be the premium farm of the town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Plainfield. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Plainfield.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 670 and 1,626 people in every census since 1820.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Plainfield’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1793, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Plainfield’s post office opened in 1809, and the census of 1820 counted 1,611 people here.
One place: the Unadilla Forks School (listed 1998).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2023