New Milltown is a historic stone mill and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in Salisbury Township,

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Lancaster County (; ), sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States ...

, United States.

History

While almost all previous mills in Lancaster County were located on the

Conestoga River The Conestoga River (), also referred to as Conestoga Creek (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River flowing through t ...

, New Milltown is called ''New'' Mill Town because it was the location of the first mill on

Pequea Creek Pequea Creek ( ; ) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River that runs for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2011 from the eastern border of Lancaster County and ...

. On January 21, 1733 (Warrant, A-12-98, Philadelphia) Samuel Blyth received the original grant on the Pequea Creek (in Salisbury, Leacock, and Paradise Townships) and quickly built a mill there. Blyth's Mill is first documented on September 6, 1744 when Blyth filed a petition that requested a road to be built from Francis Jones' land (Gap) to Blyth's Mill (D-2-35). This is the section of Newport Road which now runs between Intercourse and Gap. Samuel may have operated a mill on the site as early as 1734. The present stone mill at this location was probably first built by John Huston (Houston) ''circa'' 1750. On May 15, 1792 (Deed, PP1–221) Christian Hess (I) purchased the grist, saw and merchant mills. The assessment list of 1790 lists Christian Hess as owner. He probably was operating the mill for Samuel Huston, who had problems in clearing his ownership because of mortgage money owed to his family. Christian was born February 26, 1751, the son of John and Susanna (Landis) Hess. His wife Anna was the daughter of the well-known Mennonite Bishop Valentine Metzler. He was an ordained minister as well, and very important in the history of the

Mennonites Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

in the area, as was his son (who was primarily responsible for building the school/meeting house in 1814/1815). Though Christian Hess (I) is usually given credit for building the current stone mill around 1800 by most authorities, it is likely that he just expanded the Huston mill. Some of these improvements might have been undertaken by his son and could have taken place as late as 1815. Later owners of the mill have included: several generations of Hess; Jacob F. Hershey; Daniel Denlinger; various Hunseckers; Amos Fisher; and Ron Lieberman. The mill itself has been known by many names, but probably the most appropriate are: Hess' Mill and New Milltown Roller Mills.

{{Lancaster County, Pennsylvania History of Pennsylvania