06/08/2026
Happy 172nd Anniversary!
Plainfield First Church of God
Today is our One hundred Seventy-Second anniversary as a congregation. Can it be possible? Well, here we are – Praise God!
Looking Back
Today is a good day to look back and consider where we’ve been. Not long after the Church of God organized in 1830, early circuit riders came to preach the Gospel. The record indicates that Elder William McFadden first preached in the old schoolhouse at Smoketown in 1836. The work prospered. After the Adventist revivals of 1843-44, the eldership divided the Cumberland Circuit into upper and lower districts. The upper or western section became known as the Plainfield circuit by 1847 and included Plainfield, Spring Mills, Newville, “Possum Hill, Dawalt’s, Doubling Gap,” Myer’s Mill, and Caule’s schoolhouse, among others.
After a three-day protracted meeting, Elder Peter Clippinger organized the Plainfield congregation on June 5, 1854. From that time the appointment became known as a “mission” and received more regular preaching. A Sabbath School was organized in 1857, but the church did not grow significantly until the revivals that came following the Civil War. In 1870, the Plainfield congregation erected “a neat brick bethel” on the schoolhouse pattern. In the following century, Plainfield would be yoked with Newville at times, but more often placed on a circuit with Doubling Gap, McClure’s Gap, and North Middleton churches. In the earlier period the circuit also included South Fairview and “Possum Hill.”
Then in 1969 Plainfield became a singular station and ten years later built a new sanctuary and Christian Education wing on the edge of town. The Church extended its ministry in 1997 by erecting the Family Life Center with a new kitchen and a gymnatorium.
