A Peach Bottom man and his two sons died while working at a manure pit at a large dairy farm in Kennedyville, Md.
Glen and Debbie Nolt and members of their family. Glen is in the center; Cleason is at left, in the white shirt; Kelvin is at the far right, in the white shirt.
A Baltimore County medical officer has determined what killed a Peach Bottom man and two of his sons whose bodies were found Thursday in a manure pit on a Maryland farm.
According to state police in Maryland, Glenn W. Nolt, 48, and his sons, Kelvin, 18, and Cleason, 14, died of asphyxia.
In addition, the body of Cleason Nolt had injuries believed to have been inflicted by a large propeller on the end of an auger that circulates the liquid manure in the pit.
The deaths were ruled accidental by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
According to Glenn Nolt's brother-in-law, Nelson Neuenschwander, the Nolts went to the dairy farm on Vansant Corner Road, Kennedyville, Kent County, Md., to pump manure from the pond to be hauled away and used for fertilizer elsewhere.
In addition to being a farmer with 60 to 70 cows, the elder Nolt had a contract hauling business.
"He's been hauling manure for years," Neuenschwander said.
The Kent County farm belongs to one of Nolt's customers, Neuenschwander said.
Arriving at the farm Wednesday afternoon, Glenn Nolt fully expected to be back home later that day to milk the cows, Neuenschwander said. The three Nolts were reported missing Wednesday night when they failed to arrive home.
"They had just gotten there early that afternoon and had begun to set up," Neuenschwander said.
"Then no one knows what happened."
A tractor and Nolt's truck, which was still running, were found parked near a 2-million-gallon septic pond filled with manure, where the three were believed to have been working, state police said. The manure pit is 20 feet deep, with steep sloping sides.
Emergency personnel using vacuum trucks pumped the sludge from the pit and recovered the bodies early Thursday.
Neuenschwander said Nolt was a "hard worker" and that the boys worked right by his side.
"They helped here on the farm, and they also helped with the pumping and manure hauling, although Cleason not as much as the others," Neuenschwander said Friday night from the family home in Peach Bottom. "He was just helping out. This was a big job for them, although they had done it numerous years already. This wasn't the first time they had been doing this particular farm."
Neuenschwander called Nolt a "good man" and a "good father" to his seven children.
"He was gracious, very kind-hearted," Neuenschwander said. "He was very much a gentleman."
The boys "worked hard," although 14-year-old Cleason was "on the quiet side."
"He wasn't quite as talkative as some young fellas are," Neuenschwander said.
Funeral services will be held Monday at Bethel Mennonite Church, 1797 Robert Fulton Highway, starting at 1 p.m. Interment will follow at the church cemetery.
Neuenschwander called the accident "definitely a tragedy."
"However, we believe they are all in Heaven, so we're not hopeless, that's for sure," he said. "So this is just temporary."
