Jericho's Milkmaid Inn and vanished woolen mill

A mill that did not last

The National Park Service's Delaware Bay heritage study places Jericho on the southeastern side of Stow Creek and describes its gristmills, sawmills and role on the Bridgeton–Salem road. John Wood and New York businessman John E. Jeffers opened a woolen mill here in 1818. Jeffers left the venture, and its machinery was sold by 1830. By 1883, the study says, fewer than 100 people lived at the crossroads and it had no major business. The original mill accounts and sale records would sharpen this outline.

An inn remembered by name

A Cumberland County place-name compilation preserved by CU Maurice River describes Jericho's tavern as a destination for sleighing and dancing parties. It says Benjamin Ballenger kept it as the Milkmaid Inn in 1845, citing county freeholder minutes from November 25 of that year, and says the building still stood in 1915. The compilation does not supply a modern parcel or proof that the 1915 structure remains, and the referenced minutes have not yet been inspected here. Its “Milkmaid” spelling also appears as “Mildmaid” elsewhere in the compilation, a reminder to check the underlying record.

The map point locates the hamlet for a road visit. It does not mark the woolen mill or inn, and it conveys no access to private property or stream banks. A useful next pass would compare the 1845 freeholder minutes, 1876 county atlas and early twentieth-century property maps to see whether the inn site can be identified responsibly.