# Oneida Community · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 029 · Christian-Derived
Oneida Community
Bible Communists; Perfectionists
1848 – 1881 · Oneida, New York (and Putney, Vermont)
III. THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
Fully religious — Perfectionist Christian commune
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1834 Noyes declares his own sinlessness; loses his preaching licence at Yale.
- 1846 Complex marriage begins at Putney, Vermont.
- 1847 Noyes charged with adultery in Vermont; flees.
- 1848 Community re-founded at Oneida, New York.
- 1848–1879 Grows to roughly 300 members; becomes prosperous through animal traps, silk thread and later silverware.
- 1869–1879 STIRPICULTURE — a eugenics programme. A committee approved which members might conceive; THE STANDARD FIGURE IS 58 CHILDREN BORN BETWEEN 1869 AND 1879, WITH 9 FATHERED BY NOYES HIMSELF. SOME SCHOLARSHIP GIVES 62 CHILDREN AND 10 BY NOYES, the difference probably turning on whether births just outside the formal experiment window are counted. Either way roughly one child in six was his. They were raised communally in the Children's House.
- June 1879 Facing prosecution and internal revolt over his insistence on being the first sexual partner of young girls, Noyes flees to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and never returns.
- 28 August 1879 Complex marriage abandoned by letter from Noyes.
- 1 January 1881 Community reorganised as the joint-stock company Oneida Ltd, which became one of the largest silverware manufacturers in the world.
### Its people
### John Humphrey Noyes
—
Founder, the Oneida Community · 3 September 1811 – 13 April 1886 · active 1834–1879
Before the law. Charged with adultery in Vermont 1847; fled. Never tried. Fled a second prosecution in 1879.
Where things stand. Deceased 1886. The community became Oneida Ltd, a major silverware manufacturer.
- 1834 Declares his own sinlessness; loses his licence.
- 1846 Complex marriage begins at Putney, Vermont.
- 1847 Charged with adultery; flees Vermont.
- 1848 Community re-founded at Oneida, New York.
- 1869–79 Stirpiculture eugenics programme; 58 children.
- June 1879 Flees to Niagara Falls, Ontario.
- 13 April 1886 Dies in Canada.
Checked 2026-08-24
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