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Glasgow, Kentucky – The Barren County Sheriff’s Office responded to 4766 Nobob Road at 10:43 p.m. Monday night to assist several volunteer fire departments at the scene of a house fire. The fire claimed the life of a 4-year-old Amish male child, according to a press release from Sheriff Kent Keen. Preliminary investigation indicates the fire started from a coal oil lantern in the kitchen area of the home.

Honey Brook, Pennsylvania - A 6-year-old Amish boy died after he got pinned between two horse-drawn hay carts in Honey Brook on Wednesday, police said Thursday. The boy, whom police did not identify, was between the two carts and became pinned as they passed each other along North Birdell Road on Wednesday around 9 a.m, police said.

Aubury, Kentucky - Fines have been paid for a second time around recently for two Amish individuals who were in violation of an ordinance in the City of Auburn. The citations were given for not having collection devices on horses to catch manure. Fines are $50 per violation. Amos Mast and Wilbur Mast both received pre-payable citations for being caught in the City of Auburn without collection devices on their horses. This was the third time for Amos, who has been jailed already, along with his son Dan, for refusing to pay the fines and court costs for past violations. This is the first for Wilbur. Wilbur still has a pre-payable citation for not having proper slow moving vehicle tape on a piece of equipment.

Patton, Pennsylvania - The funeral was set for an Old Order Amish logger killed by a falling tree limb in western Pennsylvania. Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski says 20-year-old Benuel Swarey, of Allensville, was killed on state game lands in Clearfield Township on Friday morning.

Lagrange, Indiana - At a young age, Matthew Schwartz would hurry down the long driveway at his home when he heard sirens. Any emergency vehicle fascinated the Amish boy. Schwartz says his parents decided to leave the Amish community when he turned 13.

Lagrange, Indiana - At a young age, Matthew Schwartz would hurry down the long driveway at his home when he heard sirens. Any emergency vehicle fascinated the Amish boy. Schwartz says his parents decided to leave the Amish community when he turned 13.

Kentucky - A new ruling allowing Amish people to ride bikes is creating chaos for motorists in Kentucky, according to local officials. While motorists have long been frustrated by horse drawn carriages on the roadways, now the community is taking to bikes as well.

Nappanee, Indiana - Six-month-old Noah Troyer smiled as his brown eyes twinkled between the straps of the brown helmet covering his skull. On July 22, the infant was ejected from the buggy he was riding in with four members of his Amish family during a crash at Ind. 19, south of C.R. 50 near Nappanee.

Smicksburg, Pennsylvania - A coroner says a 21-year-old man was accidentally shot by his 12-year-old cousin in an Amish community in western Pennsylvania. Indiana County Coroner Jerry Overman Jr. says the victim is Allen Troyer, of Smicksburg.

St. Lawrence County, New York - St. Lawrence County legislators are one step closer to finalizing an agreement concerning Amish buggy safety. Members of the Amish community agreed to increase the amount of gray reflective tape along with other measures to help motorists see buggies at night.

Wilmington Township, Pennsylvania - Police in Pennsylvania have identified the two teenagers whose bodies were found in a creek along the county lines of Mercer and Lawrence Counties. According to the Pennsylvania State Police 15 -year-old John Mast, of Mercer, Pa., and 16-year-old Seth Byler, of New Wilmington, accidentally drowned around 3:30 this afternoon in the Little Neshannock Creek in Wilmington Township.

My name is Samuel Yoder, and I grew up in an Old Order Amish community. Most people associate the Amish with good food, big families, and large groups of friends that make for a great sense of community. It was for these three qualities that I loved growing up Amish.

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Elkhart, Indiana - An Amish family did something out of the ordinary by filing a lawsuit after a 2012 crash killed their infant son. In a statement made to the Elkhart Truth, Steve Nolt, a Goshen College history professor who studies Amish Culture says filling lawsuits is "highly unusual" because it's contrary to their religious belief in "nonresistance and defenselessness." However, fatal buggy crashes are not out of the ordinary in Michiana.

The Amish populate some parts of Michigan and many parts of the Hoosier State. Indiana is one of three states where the group primarily resides in the United States, according to the Young Center at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. As a sect of Anabaptism, the Amish believe in voluntary adult baptism. Therefore, Amish youth have the choice whether or not to stay with the church. At the age of 16, youth will enter a coming-of-age period called Rumspringa. The Amish have an 85-90% retention rate, meaning most youth choose to stay with the church, despite continuous evolving pressure from the modern world.

Often viewed as outcasts by mainstream society, the Amish may seem downright bizarre to the average American. Foregoing technological advancements that many of us would be lost without, the Amish have created a way of life that fosters a connection with the land and environment, while also cultivating an impressive sense of community. And they are healthy -- exceedingly so. The Amish rarely experience disorders like cancer or cardiovascular disease, seemingly able to bypass illness altogether. What's their secret?

A large group of minors is being investigated after an alcohol-fueled, underage party was held in rural Livingston County, Mo., this past weekend. Around 100 underage minors reportedly gathered on a portion of secluded property without the landowner’s consent late Saturday night, said Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox. Amish leaders contacted law enforcement on Monday after the location of the party was known and a group of Amish youth were allegedly involved in the soiree.

An aggressive vaccination effort in response to the 2014 measles outbreak among North American Amish communities in Ohio significantly reduced the transmission of measles and the expected number of cases, according to a new study, even though under-vaccination among the North American Amish and in other communities around the United States led to the highest national annual number of reported cases in 2014 in the last 20 years. In their new study--Modeling measles transmission in the North America Amish and options for outbreak response--Dr. Kimberly Thompson and her colleague at Kid Risk, Inc. (www.kidrisk.org), Kasper H. Kisjes, explored the impact of the 2014 outbreak response compared to no or only partial response. They concluded that "aggressive outbreak response efforts in Ohio probably prevented widespread transmission of measles within the entire North American Amish."

A 19-year-old Geauga County man who targeted Amish people in several robberies had his eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence affirmed this week in the 11th District Court of Appeals. Chase Kontur appealed from the judgment of the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas where he pled guilty to a consolidated indictment that included two second-degree felonious assaults, a lesser-included offense of third-degree robbery, one count of fourth-degree safecracking and six counts of fifth-degree breaking and entering.

Auburn, Kentucky - In this rural outpost near the border with Tennessee, Amish women park their horse-drawn buggies at the edge of town and walk in dragging wooden wagons behind them, returning with good stacked high. Some avoid town altogether. They fear ending up like Amos Mast and Dan Mast, an Amish father and son who face the possibility of jail for refusing to pay fines for not attaching a bag behind their horse to catch manure. The Masts say the bags spook the horses and that paying the town’s fines would set an unwelcome precedent.

New Auburn, Wisconsin - Richard A. Atkinson had a theory on why the green 2001 Ford Windstar he was driving ran into the back of a horse-drawn buggy, injuring two people on May 24 in New Auburn. A criminal complaint detailed that Atkinson, 49, of 2723 3 ½ Ave., New Auburn, transports the Amish and felt terrible about hitting the buggy. It read: “Richard Atkinson thought that the reason he did not see the buggy was because the front lights on the buggy were not activated because, ‘They sometimes like to save batteries.’”

This letter was written in January of 2015, and later sent to area ministers in Northern Indiana; We write to you today concerning an issue in our Amish churches.

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Sugarcreek, Ohio - Andy Yoder is a bona fide doctor. Seven years after graduating from Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, he has completed medical school and his residency at Ohio State University, and is working as a hospitalist at Aultman Hospital in Canton There was never any doubt that Yoder would complete his goal of becoming a doctor, but the path that led him there was difficult.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania - It took three days, but Elma Byler, 66, was finally released from the Lancaster County Mental Health Facility after being mistakenly committed a few days earlier. Byler spent the last month telling her friends and family that she was “retahren.” When she revealed this news to her physician, Dr. Mark Barenger, during a routine check-up, he immediately contacted the LCMHF. “She told me she was…in poor mental health,” said Barenger. “Just outright told me.”

Clark, Missouri - Maryann Yoder, 5, will join her sister Edna, 7, and other Amish children in a local one-room schoolhouse in a few years. But until then, speech therapist Anna Crusha provides a different education for the girls, just for the two of them, in their tidy home every Thursday. Crusha, working for the Sturgeon R-V School District, uses board games and other activities to improve their speech. The sisters are both partially deaf.

Seymour, Missouri - A 30-year-old Amish man died Friday morning after a lightning strike hit his horses as he plowed a garden at his farm on Smith Road, about six miles northeast of Seymour. Samuel H.K. Beechy was leading his two-horse team, pulling a cultivator, when lightning struck the horses at about 11:30 a.m., Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole said Monday morning. “The question still remains, as of today, whether his death is the result of the lightning strike or the result of a secondary injury, such as injuries sustained in the impact after the strike,” Cole explained. “Regardless, it is safe to say that the lightning strike did lead to his death.”

I’ve been fascinated by the Amish since my first trip to Holmes County, where my sister and I donned bonnets to play in a buggy, and my brother got a wooden rubber band gun. Every year we went, stopping first at the Shearer’s outlet store in Brewster to stock up on sustenance for our day of exploring. We’d stop at the wooden toy store outside Wilmot and the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock in Winesburg, and whatever else looked enchanting.

Seymour, Missouri - A man has died after being struck by lightning in a southwest Missouri farm field. KYTV reports the 30-year-old Amish man died Friday morning along with two horses he was using to cultivate the field near Seymour.

Russellville, Kentucky - Jail time was averted, at least for now, by an Amish father and son who refuse to pay fines for violating an Auburn city ordinance requiring owners to prevent waste from horses from falling on city streets. Logan District Court Judge Ken Williams deferred a show cause hearing for two weeks in the cases of Amos and Dan Mast.

Blanchard, Michigan - Horse drawn buggies clatter across the streets of Blanchard in increasing frequency. Shops are often patronized by customers dressed in homemade garments, reminiscent of the 1800s. As the Amish community continues to flourish in the small Michigan farming town, residents work to adjust to their hardworking but soft­spoken new neighbors.

Jefferson County, Ohio - A child was killed after a pickup truck crashed into her horse and buggy on Tuesday afternoon along County Road 58 in Bergholz. Officials say an 86-year-old who lives nearby was heading westbound behind the 11-year-old child, who was operating the horse-drawn buggy.