The farmlands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and
Ontario are among the most productive in North America. Many of
the farmers here are different though, but different by choice.
They are the Old Order Mennonites, sometimes called the ‘Plain
People,’ they trace their heritage back hundreds of years.
Despite all the advances in clothing, technology, agriculture,
housing, and society, their community exists in a time capsule,
living like their 19th century forefathers. Though the
population is dwindling, an estimated 17,000 adult Old Order
Mennonites to 224,000 in other similar groups, families still
pass on the traditions. James Rhodes and his wife, Mary Ethel,
born and raised in the Dayton, Virginia community, not far from
the home in which they are now raising 8 of their 9 children as
Old Order Mennonites. Old Order Mennonite is a term for the
Mennonite groups who dress plainly and reject modern
technologies. They put the disciplined church community, rather
than individual religious experience, at