Meet Johh, I remember my grandmother telling me about him when i was 17 working on a genealogy project for school. He is quite the character. John is our family connection to the Onieda Silver Company and the Commune as well. (Yes my family ran a commune) Reverend John Humphry Noyes, as far as i can tell, was the last religious leader, in a line of church leaders and founders going back to the beginning of the 15th century in my family. Part of me wonders if John here, derailed that. He took it a different sort of more . . . . off the rails direction.
John Humphry Noyes was born in 1811 in the state of Vermont. He is my 4th Cousin, we share the same 4th great grandfather. He comes down one of his sons blood lines, and i come down one of his other sons blood lines. But as the genealogy goes we still share blood. When i did my genealogy project for school all those years ago i couldn't find our connection which seemed really weird considering my grandmother already had an extremely thorough family tree that took us back to the Mayflower. I had been so fascinated by this guy that i kept digging and my mentor at the time, who was running a genealogy library out of Seattle told me it wasn't that uncommon. When families have things in their family history that may not reflect so well on said family apparently it isn't to strange for them to sort of just stop writing them in, allowing them to sort of disappear. However if that person has an interesting tale, it still gets passed around the generations almost like an urban legend for families. Which is how i had to report this particular guy for that project as i could not find the connection back in 2000-2001. My Grandmother told me we were definitely related and a little about what he did but not in deep detail, and i took her word as good. She has always had a good grasp on the family history. She was right, now that records are so much easier to come by i made the connection the other day.
Buckle in for the most secreted part of my family history, the one someone along the lines tried to sort of cover up. And as research has now lead me i'm finding it isn't uncommon for my ancestors from this part of my family to do. We push the commune under the rug sort of speak.
So in Johns early years he attended Dartmouth, he had planned to study law, and was fairly active in politics. In fact he was a member of the US House of Representatives, and later helped found New Haven, which was one of the first anti slavery societies in the country. He then attended Adover and Yale Theology Seminary with plans to go into the ministry. This would have been extremely normal for him, considering almost all the men going back to 1400 on my Noyes side were Ministers or large influencers in the Church.
The thing is John, took it a bit far. He had a completely different vision about marriage, sex, and God.
So here is the tale of Onieda. I have read tons of articles on this, including one that compared it to the real life Handmaids tail. In 1838 John was married to Harriet Holton. They had a traditional Christian marriage, and within five years they had five children. However out of the five 4 were premature and died. It is said this is what lead John to reflect on himself, and to study the connection between sex and marriage. He began to draw up new theories, and created his view/theory on male continence which lead to the Onieda community being born in 1848. At this point though still married, he stopped living with his wife, he stated it made them both experience satisfaction in a way never experienced before.
John quickly was considered a heretic by his mentors. But John was not concerned. He believed he was onto something. In fact he claimed "his new relationship to God canceled out his obligation to obey traditional moral standards or the normal laws of society." (welcome to a slippery slope) in 1834 he declared himself free of sin. ught the second coming had come to pass so year fair i guess) He believed that in order to be a true Christian you must be perfect and free of sin. He soon began proclaiming that he "did not sin".
John quickly was considered a heretic by his mentors. But John was not concerned. He believed he was onto something. Infact he claimed "his new relationship to God canceled out his obligation to obey traditional moral standards or the normal laws of society." (welcome to a slippery slope) in 1834 he declared himself free of sin.
He was expelled from Yale, and his ministerial license was revoked. Soon there after he was arrested for adultery but then released. He his wife and his first loyal followers went to New York where John had "Perfectionist" sympathizers. They got their first chunk of land in Onieda New York and started their new community. "The Onieda Community" Above is a photo of the Mansion house they built and shared.
The Onieda community is a lot to get through so i'm going to water it down, a lot. You can read about it if your really interested, there are tons of articles that have been written on it, even in modern time. Like i said above one compared this community with the Handmaids tail, i saw one that somehow linked him with the greediness of Trump and thats from just a couple years ago. So apparently he has kept himself fairly relevant. He also wrote several books including one on Male Continence.
So here is the quick run down on the Onieda community. It started small but would grow to over 300 members. The idea behind it was becoming free of sin. Most people lived together in the mansion house. John who was the leader, with a panel he put together as a board of directors as seen below . . . .
determined who would and wouldn't have "interviews" which was their term for sexual intercourse. They would pair people together with different partners with the intention of making babies or teaching the youngsters what they needed to know to make babies. They would pair couples differently for "genetic diversity". Though Onieda was often portrayed at the time as a community of "free love" it was far from that. Yes people had multiple partners, but nothing was based off love, it was based of this board of directors telling everyone who and when they would be getting it on, sort of speak. They also did things like couple young girls (as young as 12) with older "mature" men to guide them and mentor them. This was refereed to as an "ascending fellowship". It wasn't just the girls, the same was done for the young men pairing them up with older women, to teach them the way. There was only one room in the Mansion for people to have sex, and coincidentally it was in the room next to John's. The couples would go there do the deed, and then leave to go back to their own rooms. John was supportive of birth control, but men were supposed to withhold Orgasm, as to not waste their seed. It gets a little muddled because he changed up through the years what he thought wasn't and was ok sexually paired with his relationship to God. It is said that what started out as a man trying to be very pure and free of sin, realized (even if subconsciously) that he was still just a man, and had sexual desires.
It some ways Onieda wasn't all bad. It was actually considered very progressive for women. Women though they still wore dresses, also wore pants like the men. They had the freedom to choose their profession, and were allowed to hold what ever positions they saw fit. Overall they were considered fairly equal to men. Granted this doesn't overcome what modern scholars now refer to as "Bible Communism"
Many children were born into the community. John had the ultimate say in who reproduced, and the children born during this time were called "stirpicults". He ran an experiment making babies that he called "stirpiculture" where the idea was that the devout spiritual qualities of their parents would be passed down to the babies. Over 50 kids were produced in the experiment alone. However this was communal living so.the children all lived in their own bunkhouse, ,and biological parents were pushed to make sure they didn't show their own children anymore attention than any of the other kids.
The children once old enough went to work just like their parents. So child labor was not taboo here, it was the norm. It isn't well reported because everything happened behind closed doors, especially with only the one room being used for sex in the house. But there are stories and recounts especially from the children that grew up in the community, of the trauma they went through, and many rumors of pedophilia within the Mansion House walls.
You can start to see why families connected started distancing themselves from this chunk of the family life/history.
The community needed to find a way to support itself. They had many ventures, packaging vegetables, manufacturing animals traps, and more. Though the most lucrative, and famous is Onieda Silver. Most people have heard of Oneida. I mean honestly i have owned more than one thing from Onieda.
I have seen several articles comment on how it is funny that for such a long time Onieda silverware was considered the perfect first gift for newlyweds. When the community finally broke up, Onieda Silver was taken over by a trustee company. But up until that time it was infact ran by John, his board of directors, and the commune as their primary source of income. After all, "it's community" Even after the board of trustees would take over John's own son would be the major influencer for years, having actually been a good businessman.
Towards the end the community started to unravel. John had taken it too far. The Mormans who had been more vocal about their polyamory views were being scrutinized by the government. New marriage laws were soon to follow, and Onieda's open marriage concept would no longer be accepted. Mix that with claims of pediphilia and the end was coming quickly. The only thing was really going well was their business Onieda Silver "it's community" In fact in the last year before they disbanded the commune Oneida, their company was having its best year yet. Not only were they producing silver, but also canned goods, leathers and silks.
In the end John would be accused of statutory rape (who would have guessed), and he fled, literally in the middle of the night to Canada.
John, however left behind a ton of kids, smart ones. His son Pierrepont is said to have lead the Silver company into the direction of success. In the 20th Century taking it into the number one spot for silver goods. As well as making it the number one selling silverware in the country.
Onieda would continue to thrive into 2015, when it would finally file for bankruptcy. Saying it had lost it's way from being a family company (haha).
*Above is Johns Children
Onieda would then be bought out, and combined with a glass company. In 2017 the office and factory would close. The Onieda Mansion and grounds still stands, in Onieda new york. It is open year round for self guided tours. The Outside grounds and gazebo are used frequently for marriages and things like prom photos. For $100 a night you can even stay in the Mansion house in one of the community's old bedrooms. They tout themselves as being the only museum in the country where you can stay over night. One more place to add to my list of places I need to visit.
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