City Of Plainfield history

White settlers began to arrive in numbers after the 1818 Treaty of St Mary's secured the area for settlement.

French Canadian fur trader Vetal Vermette, who stopped in the region briefly in 1823, returned later in the decade and established squatter's rights to the land.

In 1826, Jesse Walker, a Methodist preacher from Virginia, established an Indian mission in a forest south of present-day Plainfield.

One of the early inns of Plainfield, Laing's was built in 1828 and was billed as a first class family resort.

The first post office opened in 1833, and the town became a stop on the stagecoach line between Chicago and Ottawa.

The City of Plainfield As with many other urban communities, Plainfield's growth followed completion of the railroad in 1838 when service was provided between Elizabethtown and Plainfield.

Plainfield became incorporated as a town in 1839, but the incorporation charter was given up because of unsuccessful attempts at town government.

When Van Buren came through Plainfield on a swing to shore up his popularity for the 1844 election, a group of perpetrators set up the incident.

He was elected the first Plainfield Superintendent of Schools in 1847 and opened two schools in Plainfield that year.

Union County was created from Essex County on March 19, 1857.

Incorporated as a village in 1861, Plainfield provided the first Union regiment from Will County for service in the Civil War.

The block from Somerset Street to Grove Street on West Front Street boasted one brick building in 1869, but no lighted or paved streets.

In 1872, the sisters (from left, Elizabeth Tiffany, Belle, Mary and Florence) moved from New York City to Plainfield, joining other family members already in residence in the Queen City.

Soon, residents rallied for a city hospital to be built." The hospital, designed by the New York-based architectural firm of Tracy & Swartwout and completed in 1877, was named for a reverend who was a champion for finding care for the sick and poor.

In the 1879 Plainfield City Directory there are 24 Vail households listed.

The Plainfield Public Library was incorporated in 1881, following a resolution by the Plainfield Common Council.

In 1886, in an attempt to publicize this, the publisher of the local newspaper, Thomas W. Morrison, began to use the slogan "Colorado of the East". Since Denver, Colorado, was known as the "Queen City of the Plains", the slogan for Plainfield eventually was shortened to "The Queen City".

In 1887, Eliza Elvira Kenyon, a “prominent society lady” and founder of the Monday Afternoon Club, and her sister, Mrs.

A photo, taken on July 30, 1889, shows Somerset Street in Plainfield after the "Big Flood." Visible in the picture are Martin's Blacksmith Shop and French's Fine Carriages on the right and the Farmer's Hotel and Haberle's Sigars and Tobacco on the left.

The caption on the back of the photo reads: "Riding the West Fourth Street Turn-Around." The first trolley, or electric streetcar, came to Plainfield on August 10, 1892, replacing most of the mule-drawn vehicles in the city.

Plainfield police officers pose in front of the Depot Park Police Headquarters and City Jail in 1897.

In 1900, the two formed their own firm.

He built his own home in Plainfield on Hillside Avenue in 1901, from which he would have been able to watch progress at the Muhlenberg site when he was overseeing the construction of the original Muhlenberg Hospital buildings.”

The building was rebuilt and expanded after an insurance settlement was announced in the summer of 1902.

In 1904, the Joliet, Plainfield & Aurora opened Electric Park to the public.

According to Sarah Hull of the Plainfield Public Library, Lohrman opened the shop in 1907 at the location that was previously home to Fowler’s Candy Kitchen and Henry Mehrtens confectionery.

The circa-1910 photo above Men from the Plainfield Ice and Supply Company harvesting ice from Watchung Lake, which was then known as Texier’s Mill Pond.

A Carnegie grant in 1912 funded an addition to the building.

In 1913, the Elks moved to 116 Watchung Avenue.

Lohrman sold the shop in 1914 and the name was changed to The Chocolate Shop.

As per the Star-Ledger, an article printed in the New York Age on March 8, 1917, notes that Saunders retired after 26 years as “the only colored officer” on the force, and would be paid a pension of $600 a year.

On April 13, 1921, women sat on the jury in the Plainfield District Court for the first time.

In 1923, the organization moved to a building across from city hall on Watchung Avenue and East 6th Street, where it is still located.

In December 1925, the Niles-Bement-Pond Co. sold the factory for $13 million to Mack Trucks, Inc., and moved the entire business to the company's headquarters in Ohio.

The doors opened at 232 E. Front St, at the corner of Church Street, in October 1929.

Rushmore, a Plainfield resident, insisted the society’s five outbuildings and the dog warden’s home (pictured) be painted with large red hearts in time for Valentine’s Day in 1938.

A 1939 photo of Samuel W. Rushmore’s home, located on Belvidere Avenue in Plainfield.

In 1945, the team won the league's county and state championships.

In this photograph, members of the team pose for a picture before the 1946 season wearing their championship jackets.

Sears opened its current location on Route 22 and Terrill Road in Watchung around 1956, and, by that time, the Front Street location was closed.

The building was demolished in 1965 as part of the Park-Madison Renewal Project.

Gleason has also been portrayed in some accounts of the riots as a bigoted and brutal cop who reportedly shot a black child in 1966.

Norman Deen Muhammad, chairman of the Plainfield Anti-Violence Coalition, was six years old in 1967 and still has vivid memories of what happened.

In the 42-day trial that ended two days before Christmas in 1968, one was acquitted by the judge, the jury found seven not guilty and was deadlocked on one.

According to a 1970 Courier News article, "it was a rare Plainfielder who never set foot inside the Babcock Building in its early years, because it was used for lodge halls, music studios, stores, offices and the post office at one time or another."

In 1971, the school district finally started a desegregation plan, but because of the white flight, Dreier said, integration was difficult to achieve.

In 1980, the Union County Prosecutor's Office decided not to bring Merritt to trial for a fourth time and the indictment was dismissed.

Everett Lattimore became the city's first black mayor in 1981 and the first Democrat elected mayor in 68 years.