The village of West Hill is located one mile west of Plainfield on Route 641 in West Pennsboro Township. The 1872 Atlas of Cumberland County shows the village consisting of six houses, a Methodist Episcopal Church, two stores, and a blacksmith shop.
Newspaper editors encouraged residents of towns and villages in the county to send them items of interest for publication. The editor of the Carlisle Weekly Herald included a letter from a resident of Hickorytown in its December 20, 1883 issue.
Born in France during the reign of King Louis Philippe, Peter Karlskind arrived in America in 1863, fought with the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and died in Cumberland County on or about New Year’s Day 1900.
In 1812, tavernkeeper Michael Forner laid out lots on a piece of land on the road from Carlisle to Newville. He called the new town Plainfield. Plans were afoot for a Grand Turnpike from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, and Forney thought it "would more than probably go through his new town."It did not. Often referred to as Smokey Town, the name Plainfield was officially adopted with the opening of the Post Office. The map of Plainfield in the 1872 Atlas of Cumberland County shows the locations of the shops, two churches, the school, the hotel as well as the houses. Plainfield grew, and by 1910, the village had approximately 200 residents.