6-Year-Old Amish Boy Drowns In Manure Pit While Visiting Relative’s Farm (Lancaster County)

Another story just about too horrible to imagine has claimed a young Amish life, while highlighting the dangers inherent in small family farms.

A 6-year-old Amish boy drowned Sunday after falling into a manure pit while visiting a family member’s farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Leon Blank, of Christiana, died on a farm in Salisbury Township near the Chester County line. The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office released his name Tuesday. From LNP | LancasterOnline:

Leon Blank died of asphyxia due to drowning and his death was ruled an accident, according to the coroner’s office.

Blank was visiting a family member’s property in Salisbury Township when he fell into the manure pit, the coroner’s office said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

In an earlier report on Monday, Coroner Stephen Diamantoni said the boy appeared to have wandered away from the group he was with, and that no one saw him fall. I have heard separately that he was playing with other children at the time.

Emergency crews were called around 4 p.m. Sunday, after a report that someone had gone into the pit and had not come back up for more than 15 minutes.

The manure pit was fenced in. Coroner Diamantoni told WGAL that the boy may have climbed up on the fence and then from that position fell into the pit. “The death of a child that way is an absolute tragedy,” said Diamantoni.

According to his obituary, Leon was the son of Amos R. and Ruth Ann Beiler Blank, and attended the Old Order Amish Church with his parents. He was born in Ephrata and is survived by three siblings, along with grandparents and a great-grandmother.

His funeral was held this morning at his family’s home near Christiana. Hate to keep having to say this, but I can’t begin to imagine what the family might be feeling. Prayers for them.

At Least The Fifth Child To Die On A Lancaster County Farm This Year

LNP notes that Leon’s death is at least the fifth death of a child on a Lancaster County farm in 2026. We’ve covered a number of them here.

In February, a two-year-old Amish girl died after falling from a tractor in Upper Leacock Township. In August, a 16-year-old boy died after falling through a hay hole in a barn.

Then in September, two children died on back-to-back days in Leacock Township: a 16-year-old who fell from a horse-drawn wagon during the corn harvest, and, the following morning, a three-year-old boy run over by a forklift on the farm where he lived.

Separately, in late September a four-year-old Amish boy was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while crossing a state route in Chester County, on his way to help with work at a farm across the road.

Lancaster County typically records more farm-related deaths than any other county in Pennsylvania. Sadly children are the most common victims. Of the 29 farm deaths covered by LNP between 2016 and early this year, 16 involved children aged 5 or younger.

Manure Pits On Amish Farms

A manure pit stores liquid manure from dairy cows and other livestock until it can be spread on fields. Drowning is one danger. Another is the gases given off by a pit, which can overcome a person. This I suppose is a hazard similar to the gas which can be generated in a silo.

A 15-year-old died in Lancaster County in 2014 when the farm equipment he was driving overturned in a manure pit. At the time, the Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal counted six local deaths since 1989 due to falling or jumping into manure pits.

In another example in 2011, a 4-year-old boy drowned in a partially frozen manure pit on a farm outside New Holland. His mother believed he may have been trying to retrieve a dog that had wandered onto the ice. In that case the pit had also been surrounded by a fence.