Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, a town (1957 pop. 3,600; 2000 pop. 6,765) located in a fertile and prosperous farming area on the Lancaster-Harrisburg Pike, 13 miles (20 km) west of Lancaster, was settled in 1735 by Scottish-Irish immigrants from Mountjoy, Donegal, Ireland. The Heistands and Nissleys, Mennonites, had settled there by 1750. Swiss Mennonites claimed the lands back from the highway, but gradually also obtained those over the highway from the Scottish-Irish. By the twentieth century the Swiss had also come into town. A large Mennonite congregation (Mennonite Church), called Mount Joy, with 394 in 1956 members, worshiped in the town, and numerous other congregations surrounded it.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 759. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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