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K R I S T E N' S C O L L E C T I O N
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Archive name: notes.txt (MF)
Authors name: Holly Rennick (jlrennick@yahoo.com)
Story title : Notes on Onida
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Notes on Onida (MF)
by Holly Rennick (jlrennick@yahoo.com)
***
by Holly Rennick
annotation by Cindi Barton
"History is more or less bunk." Henry Ford
"Well this history isn't." Holly Rennick
"Those who don't remember the past are condemned to
repeat it." George Santayana
"But could we give this one another run-through?" Cindi
Barton
AUTHOR'S COMMENTS: The upcoming NEA Teachers of
Language State Conference is soliciting papers dealing
with "Language for Leadership". If I get something
accepted, District foots the bill. Plus it would look
good as a "Professional Activity" in my annual review.
Otherwise, I have to go to PTA meetings. So what I'm
going to do is write "Cohabitive Control by Verbal
Dominance, the Oneida Story". It's more engaging than
"FDR's Fireside Chats" that Doris Mullins read last
year.
The Oneida Community, New York, was one of the more
successful utopian communes in history. They were
"Christian Perfectionism", seeking an environment
suitable to shield themselves from sin in the 1800's.
They couldn't do it these days, of course.
As Adam and Eve were first innocent and as little
children have no shame, humans must be innately
sinless, the Perfectionists decided. "The church on
earth," they hoped, "is now rising to meet the
approaching kingdom in the heavens, and to become its
duplicate and representative on earth." In the perfect
environment, man might live his life purely. (Sorry for
the sexism, but that's how they put it.)
The Oneida Community was of interest to H.G. Wells,
Aldous Huxley, Julian Huxley, and George Bernard Shaw.
Shaw appended "Experiment at Oneida Creek" in "The
Revolutionist's Handbook" to his "Man and Superman". So
my subject has literary merit.
Oneida is today remembered for its silver spoons
(Perfectionists were good in business) and what they
called "complex marriage" (Perfectionists were good in
bed, as we shall see.). It seems such a shame that the
art is lost. Not the silversmithing art, I mean to say,
the other one.
Following are my notes on the Community's chronology.
There are scores of scholarly books on the subject,
lots of websites and a substantial collection of
original documents archived at Syracuse University. By
all means, check me out. I didn't junk it up with
references, since who cares, but it's real. Honest.
My NEA paper will analyze the use of language by
Oneida's father figure, John Humphrey Noyes, 1811-1886.
How did he justify to the Victorian Era the routine
exchange of sexual partners? How did he train males to
not ejaculate? I mean, we're talking "Language for
Leadership"! First I just want to get the chronology in
order. I'll do my heavy-duty deconstruction later. (I
took "Deconstructionism and Postmodernism", and got a
C. Nobody at NEA knows that, though.)
I've asked my colleague Cindi Barton to check me out.
She teaches science, so knows more about handling
facts. You may remember her from my "Writer's Notebook"
and "Cindi's Top Tips of Sibling Success", but this one
isn't that, of course. It's for the NEA.
- Holly
ANNOTATOR'S COMMENTS
For heaven's sake! Why did I agree to look at all this
history? English majors like Holly should just stick to
how to use the semicolon or whatever. As a scientist, I
stick to things in which I'm trained. If I, let's say,
discover a new element doing the strong-acid-plus-sugar
demo ("Safety glasses, everyone.") I'll write a paper.
I could call it Cindium. Maybe Bartonium if it's
radioactive. "Br" is taken, though, but I think "Ci" is
still available. I have a periodic chart.
Anyway, my comments are inserted between the "*** Cindi
Starts ***" and "*** Cindi Ends ***". Holly's just
insecure about sex. That's why we're good buddies,
because we balance each other. For reading over her
notes, she's promised to take me to the Sizzler.
- Cindi
LET HISTORY SPEAK
John Humphrey Noyes was born in Brattleboro, Vermont in
1811. His forebears arrived from England just 14 years
after the Pilgrims. Noyes' father, also John, a
successful businessman and Congressman, had become an
agnostic while studying theology at Dartmouth. Noyes'
mother, Polly, was an aunt of President Rutherford B.
Hayes. Sixteen years younger than John Sr., she was
strong-willed and deeply religious. She taught her
children to fear the Lord, praying before John
Humphrey's birth that someday he might be a minister of
the Gospel.
In 1826 New England religious revival hit its peak
under Charles Finney, but young Noyes was cynical. John
Humphrey entered Dartmouth, graduated with high honors
in 1830, and spent a year studying law in New
Hampshire.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Right off we see what's coming. This guy pronounces his
name like "noise", but it's spelled "No" plus "yes". We
use that switch all the time. "No, you can't touch my
blouse." Then, while your little finger is brushing his
belt buckle, "Well, yeah, it's OK for you to undo a few
buttons if we're just fooling around." It's called the
"No, Yes". Noyes is out to pull the old switcheroo.
And I'll not even comment about an older father, away a
lot, a younger mother and a growing boy. "John
Humphrey," I can hear her, "Come upstairs and work this
whalebone around so it fits me better. If you stand
behind me and reach around, you'll feel where it pokes
me. Maybe you need to reach inside. Is the door
locked?"
And related to a President? "I never had sex with
either my son John or my nephew Rutherford. It depends
what you mean by, 'with'."
So we'll probably meet Mom again.
Meanwhile, the boy's smitten by jurisprudence. As Will
Rogers put it, "I don't think you can make a lawyer
honest by an act of legislature. You've got to work on
his conscience. And his lack of conscience is what
makes him a lawyer."
So we've got his number. Things look grim for Holly's
deconstruction, or whatever she plans to do with this.
When I go to NEA, this is why I skip the papers. I
usually run into someone on the elevator and run out of
time.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THAT OLD TIME RELIGION
The Second Great Awakening, a religious revival, swept
northern states in 1831. Anyone could enter heaven by
repenting of sin. At the request of his mother, John
Humphrey attended an event again under the ministry of
Charles Finney. Again he was at unmoved, but this time
suffered a feverish cold that led him to think of
death, humble himself, expect the Millennial Kingdom,
end his study of law and enter Andover Seminary.
But he found the Andover students too worldly and
transferred to Yale where many prominent in the
Awakening received their training. Associating with
anti-Calvinistic reformers, Noyes began to hear about
Perfectionism, an offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism
offering a path to perfect holiness by an inner
salvation. As Noyes could summon neither feelings of
guilt nor despair, Perfectionism fit with his belief
that he was innately sinless. He was ordained as a
Congregational minister.
In 1834 Noyes experienced three emotional weeks in New
York City during which he fluctuated from manic
euphoria to depression, his "High Tide of the Spirit".
Noyes became passionate. Just days after his
experience, he announced that he had reached a state of
sinlessness. Perhaps because a sinless world might be
difficult for organized religion, his license to preach
was annulled by his superiors.
Recovered from this psychic distress, Noyes found the
succeeding three years difficult as he wandered around
New York and New England, expounding with little
success his unorthodox beliefs. Noyes returned to
Putney to evangelize family and friends.
*** Cindi Starts ***
This is exactly why I'm a Catholic. Nobody's perfect.
Like maybe I let a guy undo a few buttons because we're
just fooling around on the Hudson's Bay blanket and
then he slips down my jeans and, well, you know.
Confess that you're not perfect. If it was your
brother, maybe you don't need to give that detail to
the Father, is all. I can understand that some Fathers
mess up with the celibacy thing. They're not perfect
either, but they should definitely not have sex with
Sisters. Protestants just have too many options. Our
only concern is which mass to go to.
This isn't to say that Protestants can't go to heaven
or be good people. I never ask about a guy's religion,
but sometimes you can tell. Another Catholic will never
look at Mary above my bed and ask if I'm a nun. I got
that picture when I was a little girl. A good Catholic
will cross himself for Her blessing.
*** Cindi Ends ***
COMPLEX MARRIAGE
By 1836, Noyes' thoughts had coalesced. According to
Noyes' calculation, the Second Coming had already
occurred in 70 AD, so it was time for him to implement
the consequences. God's Kingdom on earth would be a
Biblical Communism in which all property was owned
jointly. More revolutionary than Marxian economics,
however, would be the end of exclusive marriage. As
there's no marriage in Heaven, the faithful may love
each other fully where Heaven is established on earth.
And believers who fully love each other in communal
association must be allowed to love each other
physically, "not by pairs, as in the world, but en
masse." God wants His representatives to have different
partners.
Perfect unity results where each is married to all in
heart, mind and body. "Free love" was a term Noyes
believed himself to have coined. The "free love" label,
however, was soon purloined by a different class of
speculators and came to represent a form of
licentiousness with which Noyes had no affinity. Noyes
entitled his version, "complex marriage".
"In the holy community, there is no more reason why
sexual intercourse should be restricted by law than why
eating and drinking should be -- and there is as little
occasion for shame in the one case as in the other...
Sexual shame is factitious and irrational... The only
way to elevate love is to clear away the false,
debasing associations that usually crowd around it, and
substitute true, beautiful ones.
"The plea that marriage is founded in nature will not
bear investigation. Experience testifies that the human
heart is capable of loving more than one at the same
time. It is not the loving heart but the green-eyed
claimant of the loving heart that sets up the one-love
theory."
*** Cindi Starts ***
Well, OK, I agree it's not about shame, but to make sex
like eating and drinking? Like snarfing down a Big Mac?
Smooth old son-of-a-bitch, isn't he?
Making love is fun when it's a little bit possible and
a little bit risky. Take, for example, Aaron in my Life
Sciences. I can tell that he's not yet had sex; he's
not confident with girls. My bending over his desk
turns him beet red when my bra hangs loose. Look at my
hunched-forward shoulders, buster! My risk wasn't much,
just giving him a peek. His risk was brushing me when
we were hanging up the wall chart of the nitrogen
cycle. I let him do me three or four times since nobody
was watching. It's just our opportunity that now
awaits. I'll do the No-Yes to steer him along, of
course. But let's be honest; it isn't like we'll just
be going to drink a Coke.
And, Heavens-to-Betsy, when I teach him a few things,
it isn't like we're getting married!
*** Cindi Ends ***
GETTING STARTED
Noyes' 1837 denunciation of marriage in the radical
"The Battle-Axe and Weapons of War" newspaper
temporarily cost Noyes most of his followers, but his
unflagging effort snared Harriet Holton, granddaughter
of the Lieutenant Governor. After she started to
financially support him, Noyes proposed marriage in a
careful manner: their bond would selfishly possess one
another just for a time and then grow to higher
dimensions.
Marriage advanced his work for God. "By this marriage,
besides herself, and a good social position, which she
held as belonging to the first families of Vermont, I
obtained money enough to buy a house and printing-
office, and to buy a press and type."
During the decade following, Noyes published a series
of newspapers promoting his views. He helped arrange
the marriages of his sisters to two of his adherents,
Harriet H. to John L. Skinner and Charlotte to John R.
Miller. He gained the loyalty of his younger brother
George and later, his own mother.
The Putney Community came to be with the Noyes brothers
John Humphrey and George, the in-laws Skinner and
Miller, and George Cragin as its nucleus. John Humphrey
was boss, later declaring, "I would never connect
myself with any individual or association in religion
unless I were acknowledged leader."
Putney communism "included all property of family
living and associations". Approximately 37 members
lived in three houses, maintained a store and worshiped
in a chapel. They ran two farms and with Noyes
inheritance, supported themselves.
In 1841, Noyes and Harriet initiated complex marriage
by enlarging their marital relations to include George
and Mary Cragin. For five years thereafter, complex
marriage was practiced among the commune's leadership.
*** Cindi Starts ***
I knew it. I knew it. I knew it! Who comes back into
the picture? We don't need to be rocket scientists (no
scratch that one, given the Space Shuttles) to see his
design. He's for sex as a community activity; he's said
so. So whom does he recruit? Mom and his sisters.
Did you catch that complex marriage was practiced only
among the leadership for five years? Read back and see
who that was if you didn't catch the family
coincidence.
I can imagine Noyes's line, "Mom [or Harriet or
Charlotte, three separate conversations, surely], you
know how the two of us were so close before, especially
when Father was away being a politician? How we found
our very special way to prove it? Remember when the
feather tick exploded under you? How we could enjoy
ourselves in the sleigh because the horses knew the
way? That time on the porch swing? [To his sisters]
That Hudson's Bay blanket that was red anyway, so it
didn't matter. Well now God approves it. It's what we
perfected mortals are supposed to do. It's in the
Book."
*** Cindi Ends ***
MALE CONTINENCE
Female orgasm was the ultimate objective of social sex.
"Male continence" meant the man putting his penis
inside the woman's vagina for periods of over an hour
and then withdrawing without ejaculation after the
woman experienced several orgasms. The term derived
from "containing" the sperm.
Noyes reflected, "I conceived the idea that the sexual
organs have a social function which is distinct from
the propagative; and that these functions may be
separated practically. I experimented on this idea, and
found that the self-control which it required was not
difficult; also that my enjoyment was increased; also
that my wife's experience was very satisfactory, as it
had never been before."
Noyes proposed, "We begin by analyzing the act of
sexual intercourse. It has a beginning, middle, and an
end. Its beginning and most elementary form is the
simple presence of the male organ in the female. Then
usually follows a series of reciprocal motions. Finally
this exercise brings a nervous action or ejaculatory
crisis which expels the semen... Suppose the man
chooses... to enjoy... the reciprocal motion, and yet
to stop short of the final crisis... If you say that
this is impossible, I answer that I know it is
possible, nay, that it is easy."
"I suppose physiologists might say... that the
excitement by motion might be carried so far that a
voluntary suppression of the commencing crisis would be
injurious. But what if a man knowing his own power and
limits, should not even approach the crisis, and yet be
able to enjoy the presence and the motion of libitum."
"I appeal to the memory of every man who has had good
sexual experience to say whether, on the whole, the
sweetest and noblest period of intercourse with woman
is not that first of simple presence and spiritual
effusion, before the muscular exercise begins."
"As propagation will become a science, so amative
intercourse will have place among the fine arts. Indeed
it will take rank above music, painting, sculpture, &c;
for it combines the charms and benefits of them all.
There is as much room for cultivation of taste and
skill in this department as in any."
Noyes the rationalist was troubled by any waste of
semen. Sex not intended for procreation and yet
involving the expulsion of semen was illogical.
Celibacy didn't solve the God-given need. Nor was the
safe period method a good solution either, as it was
unreliable and unavailable frequently enough.
With strict adherence to Noyes' technique there was
minimal risk of pregnancy. Under his tutelage, at most
31 accidental births took place in a community of
approximately 200 adults exchanging partners as often
as twice a week over 20 years.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Is this for real? Everybody screwing everybody is weird
enough, but makes some sort of sense if you really like
lots of sex. But male continence, a guy not coming?
"Reciprocal motion" is what it's all about.
I asked Holly about "libitum", what it means. She says
that it's what Noyes wrote. We're pretty sure it means
screwing, but our dictionaries don't know, even.
Now Holly thinks I screw a bunch, but it's really not
all the time or anything. But I guess I have sampled
the spectrum. Guys are two types. A hasty fucker shoots
before you're ready and a proficient lover waits.
That's it. We're talking minutes, though, for the
latter. An hour? No way, Jose. I don't care what they
claim about their abilities, my guys wear rubbers. And
every one is wet inside when it comes off.
My weird girlfriends say that Tibetan Buddhist tantra
fosters male orgasm control because the point of sacred
sex is to raise men's kundalini energy by
metaphysically re-absorbing their sperm and sending it
shooting up their spinal chords into their brains and
thus achieving blissful union with the Goddess. Women
are thought to be "shaktis", empowering incarnations of
goddesshood that validates the male spiritual
experience. It's stupid, if you ask me, but even if
it's right, only some Yogi stud can pull this off,
certainly not a red-blooded American.
Then there's this new-age "karezza". It's just about
who's in control. The woman's passion is conventionally
subordinated to the man's. He must control the
situation. But (whoa, we're getting so insightful,
aren't we?) it doesn't have to be this way. The chick
gets her say too! Karezza says that there should be
long, tender, restful pauses, alternations of "storm
and peace". The whole embrace can be very quiet,
decided by the woman. Well, whoop-ti-do! Once she lets
him get to it and make her come, he's not going to join
her?
Noyes must have had some sort of numbing drug, I'll
bet. He did well, sure. Let's give him credit for
dropping the fertility. Maybe he just recited the books
of the Bible backwards to keep from impregnating his
lover. But however he did it, sorry to say, it's an art
as lost as the art of scrimshaw.
Where Noyes was half right is that intercourse ranks
"above music, painting, sculpture, &c.; for it combines
the charms and benefits of them all." It ranks above,
but it's no combination. I can't sing, can't paint,
can't sculpt one bit and I can still screw just fine.
His health claim about semen squandered to satisfy an
instinctual orgasm is ridiculous. I've never had a guy
get sick. Sure, they get worn out, same as tennis. But
nobody's ever argued that playing tennis is bad for
you.
*** Cindi Ends ***
MUTUAL CRITICISM
All members were subject to criticisms of the whole
membership, usually directed toward traits, thoughts or
acts detracting from family unity. Mutual criticism
could be shameful and humiliating. Women were afforded
opportunity to discuss sexual expectations openly and
to criticize the physical performance of a partner. An
individual repeatedly criticized for uninspired
performance in bed could be denied desirable partners.
Mutual criticism in evening meetings represented the
centerpiece of Community life. Only Noyes himself was
exempt because he felt that a group should not
criticize its leader.
Harriet Noyes wasn't exempt, however. "Mrs. Harriet A.
Noyes was criticized. It was thought she was deficient
in severity; it would do her good to scold sometimes.
She should improve in sitting up straight." But they
weren't mean, adding, "She was a beautiful lover... did
not trifle, but treated love with sacredness; She was
free from the marriage spirit, a good critic, a medium
of grace to the Association."
The youth of course needed guidance. "A spirit has
prevailed among them of running together in cliques,
leading to anti-improvement and superficiality. Last
evening a note from Sarah Burt was read confessing a
spirit of false love and insincerity and a desire to
separate herself from it. This led to a general
criticism of that class of girls. Their condition was
attributed in some degree to novel reading. They were
exhorted to seek the ascending fellowship."
*** Cindi Starts ***
Mutual criticism was what Mao used in his Cultural
Revolution to purge educated citizens. It works.
Where Noyes got mean was allowing complaints about a
guy's performance. Sometimes nice guys just foul up.
You tell then that it's OK and try to help them get
better. Usually they do, if they trust you. My brother
and I were terrible, both of us, the first times, but
we just laughed because we loved each other.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THE END OF PUTNEY
In 1847, the Putney group agreed, "that the Kingdom of
God had come." As complex marriage grew, however, and
members began to boast of healing powers, neighbors
grew less tolerant.
Noyes had treated a Harriet Hall for tuberculosis and
dropsy by holding a s‚ance and sexually sealing the
spiritual cure. After her husband's complaint, a grand
jury indicted Noyes for adultery. Investigation led to
a second count based on frank conversations with
supporters or would-be supporters who subsequently
defected.
Fifteen-year-old Lucinda Lamb was one of three "flowers
of the village" plucked by Miller. Emma and Helen
Campbell, 24 and 21, could legally surrender their
virtue to Miller and Noyes himself. Allowing seduction
its course of time, Miller writes, "I was quite pleased
to find Emma at our house. The only thing that
displeases me is that she is too much afraid to stay
and will not make herself at home." Lucinda, more
enthusiastic for full participation in the ways of the
Community, went to Miller's brother-in-law George
Noyes.
John R. Miller countered community concern with his
persuasive ability, drawing upon the positive business
and personal relationship the Noyes family had with the
townspeople. Compromise and financial conciliation were
important. As Noyes put it, "Our policy is to give the
enemy a bridge of money, over which to make a decent
retreat."
With so many Putney conflagrations smouldering, Noyes,
Moses of the new dispensation but always the Yankee
pragmatist, wished to avoid martyrdom when the payoffs
ran out. In 1848 he forfeited half his $2,000 bond and
fled Vermont.
*** Cindi Starts ***
My 15-year-olds take charge of their own sexuality, if
not always safely. But back then it would have been a
huge deal. Most girls were fellowshipped at less than
15 in the Oneida record, but these were daughters of
already-members. As their fathers and brothers could
then enjoy them, they were presumably encouraged to
accept the "pearl of great price" after their very
first spotting. Lucinda was her own girl.
In later years, Lucinda's picture, black hair pulled
above her head, appears in the archives of the
faithful. Her staying suggests that George did a good
job.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THE BEGINNING OF ONEIDA
Forty-five believers followed Noyes to Oneida Creek
between Utica and Syracuse, New York where they
purchased 23 acres. This Promised Land was nearer the
Canadian border, convenient in case of future
persecution.
All that was practiced at Putney occurred in larger
scale at Oneida. Economic communism was
institutionalized. Unlike Putney, which evolved, Oneida
was strictly planned as a social and religious utopia.
By January 1849, there were 87 members on approximately
40 acres of partially cleared land with an Indian
sawmill. The Community purchased yet additional real
estate, established a variety of minor craft
industries, built a communal dwelling and appointed
administrative committees.
By February 1850, there were 172 members and Oneida
publicly stated that it was not actively seeking new
members. Thereafter it periodically reaffirmed this
position. None-the-less, by February 1851 there were
205.
It seemed to be working, as John R. Miller reflected to
George Cragin, "I think I can say with Mr. Noyes, that
exclusive love with me is a thing gone by. Two years
ago we... had to have our watch constantly on duty to
prevent our social building from being burned up by the
fires of jealousy... It never enters our heads that we
can offend anyone by the expression of love. This is
truly one of the 'greater miracles'."
*** Cindi Starts ***
So they all lived happily ever after, laboring as
family by day, copulating as family by night. Well just
keep reading. You know it's not going to work out
because here we are 150 years later, working out butts
off and some of us still sleeping alone.
*** Cindi Ends ***
ASCENDING FELLOWSHIP
Noyes' idea of "ascending fellowship" was critical for
Christian complex marriage to not degenerate into
heathen licentiousness.
As the Community explained, "It is regarded as better
for the young of both sexes to associate in love with
persons older than themselves, and, if possible, with
those who are spiritual and have been some time in the
school of self-control, and who are thus able to make
love safe and edifying... It is well understood by
physiologists, that it is undesirable for persons of
similar characters and temperaments to mate together...
It is not desirable for two inexperienced and
unspiritual persons to rush into fellowship with each
other; that it is far better for both to associate with
persons of mature character and sound sense."
Those picked to instruct the virgins were older
"Central Members" considered to be closer to God. A
male Central Member would pick a virgin of about 14,
but some of them were as young as 10. Noyes often
insisted on being the first. Girls were restricted from
intercourse with young men until they could prove they
would not form love relationships.
Female Central Members past the age of menopause
initiated the boys, the latter confined to their
assignment until mastering male continence.
The system seems to have been demanding. As Noyes
reflected, "The plan proposed last fall of introducing
the young men to the freedom of the Association through
the more spiritual women has been attended with
difficulties. Mrs. Cragin lost her equilibrium in the
attempt to carry it out, and there appears to have been
an unhealthy excitement in Perkins and perhaps others,
which has ended in grudging discontent."
"The transition of the young men from the hot blood of
virginity to the quiet freedom which is the essential
element of our Society is emphatically the difficult
pass in our social experience... We have distressing
examples of the effect of initiating young men. The
spiritual collapse of Julia Hyde and Sarah Dunn,
perhaps also of Sarah Campbell, Mrs. Worden and Louisa
Waters may be mentioned... The weaker party needs
protection from the untamed lion."
*** Cindi Starts ***
So let's see how this works.
Hiram: "Gosh, Aunt Carrie, I'm not sure what I'm to
do."
Aunt Carrie: "Don't worry. That's why the Central
Members chose me."
Hiram: "Aren't you a Central Member?
"
Aunt Carrie: "Certainly. I'm ascended, young man! Now
undo my garters."
Hiram: "Like this?"
Aunt Carrie: "Yes, but try not to tremble. God wants
you to be perfect."
Hiram: Sorry. "It's just, you know, I've never actually
seen..."
Aunt Carrie: "God made me perfect."
Hiram: "That's what they taught us. My heavens, Aunt
Carrie!"
Aunt Carrie: "Just checking."
Hiram: "I'm not too sure you should be doing that."
Aunt Carrie: "About like your dad. He's sometimes not a
good container. We talked to him in Mutual Criticism
last week"
Hiram: "So don't I get on top, like we practice in the
Children's Wing? The girls just don't let us push in
since they want Mr. Noyes to be the one."
Aunt Carrie: "You just lie flat and I'll do the work."
Hiram: "What if I spill my seed?"
Aunt Carrie: "Try praying. It's not a problem, though,
due to my seniority qualification. Just not too quick.
Ready?"
Hiram: "Mom says she's next."
Aunt Carrie: "My younger sister needs to wait her turn.
You can't sleep with her until you have your continence
perfected. Don't be like your dad."
So it sounds pretty good for our Aunt Carrie, don't you
think? But Mrs. Cragin, Perkins, Julia Hyde, Sarah
Dunn, Sarah Campbell, Mrs. Worden and Louisa Waters
seemed to have breakdowns.
So why would the women suffer, and yet, by lack of
mention, not the males? Here's my theory. Males might
be able to contain themselves for periods, but
physiology says they need to now-and-then get
themselves back into balance. Postmenopausal women
serve that purpose. Fire away! So here come all the
guys doing the Lord's work who just need completed
quickies. The receptacles get overwhelmed. Just my
theory.
Maybe young Hirams were a bit too much for a woman of a
certain age. Now you'd give them Valium, but it wasn't
invented yet.
*** Cindi Ends ***
MR. NO YES
Noyes allowed greater freedom to followers he thought
ready. An 1849 letter from Mary Cragin to her husband
reports Noyes's suggestion that, "if Mr. Bradley is in
a good state... he have liberty with Ellen and Philena
if he wishes it. Sarah [Bradley] will no doubt be
pleased to help her husband fellowship with others...
Also hint to those girls that they exercise some
conservatism, and not allow themselves to be made too
free with by all sorts."
Noyes likewise withheld authorization for sexual
relations, as Mary Cragin, in that same letter,
delicately notes, "With regard to the state of things
between you and me, I am well satisfied. God has our
hearts in his power, and I have no complaint to make of
his administration. When he thinks best he will give me
that attraction which you desire; and until he does
think best, as there is some excellent reason for
withholding it, let us say, 'Thy will be done'."
A retrospective assessment of the sexual system is
found is a letter from Noyes' son Theodore to medical
student Anita Newcomb McGee. The power to regulate or
withdraw sexual privileges, Theodore deemed, "by common
consent delegated to father and his subordinates,
constituted by far the most effectual means of
government. Father possessed in a remarkable degree the
faculty of convincing people that the use of this
arbitrary power was exercised for their own good."
*** Cindi Starts ***
No, Yes. "No, Mary, you can't with your husband George.
Yes Mr. Bradley, you may with Ellen and Philena. Have
Mrs. Bradley make the arrangements."
Mr. Noyes had so many things to be in charge of. It's
pretty confusing just being in charge of yourself
sometimes.
*** Cindi Ends ***
ARE YOU TAKEN TONIGHT?
The men had their problems. William H. Perry was
accused of "sensual self-seeking and concealment,"
including hiding evidence of venereal disease, in his
overly free relations. Those suffering from what Noyes
called "the rooster spirit" and unwilling to conform
were expelled.
As women who were younger and more attractive might be
overwhelmed with demands for sex, a more-Victorian
recruitment of bed partners evolved.
"Persons shall not be obliged to receive under any
circumstances the attentions of those whom they do not
like. They abhor rapes, whether committed under the
cover of marriage or elsewhere... Every woman is free
to refuse every man's attentions."
"It is best for men in their approaches to women, to
invite personal interviews through the intervention of
a third party, for two important reasons: viz., first,
that the matter may be brought in some measure under
the inspection of the Community; and, secondly, that
the women may decline proposals, if they choose,
without embarrassment or restraint."
Details were worked out amongst the ladies. "If there
is any doubt in the minds of those who are asked to
give invitations as to the propriety of the visit they
are to consult any one of the following persons: Mrs.
Dunn, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Thayer, Jane Kinsley and
Harriet Allen. All women carrying invitations shall
report to these women, who will keep a record."
*** Cindi Starts ***
I try to be a matchmaker for Holly sometimes. If I
think a guy will respect her pace, I'll drop a few
hints. Nothing like, "Mick likes your eyes," but maybe
something about Mick liking a certain author. Maybe
I'll set up a double date, a concert or something. My
brother and I used to double to the drive-in. My
boyfriend and I got the front. I'd straddle him, facing
the rear and my brother would get his date on his lap
the same way. Then the two of us could make faces at
each other and maybe even come at the same time. He
could read me even if I was only silhouetted. Holly's
too inhibited, though. Plus they hardly have drive-ins
any more.
What relates to Oneida is that somebody else trying to
schedule you can get complicated. I'll bet one of
students could write a computer program where you'd say
how often you wanted to and your first choices. It
would e-mail everybody the schedule.
Maybe Aaron could write the code. I'd have him do it my
place, since it shouldn't be on my school Apple. I'd
explain how it was for Ms. Rennick's history project,
just hypothetical. I'd show him where on the net to get
short instructional clips. We'd watch them. To test his
program, we'd just use two names, Aaron and Cindi. When
it said we should sleep together, I'd giggle and say we
didn't have to do anything, just pretend like we were,
since the computer said so. I'd say that I had to take
off my blouse, though, since we're not computers
ourselves.
*** Cindi Ends ***
MARY CRAGIN
Mary Cragin's untimely death in a boating accident in
1851 brought Noyes personal crisis, as it came to be
realized that she was indeed his favorite woman. Noyes,
all in all an honest Moses, took this as a lesson in
his own imperfection. Excerpting from a letter to his
own wife, Harriet,
"Do you not think, as I do, that my falling in love
with Mrs. Cragin was what drew me out of commencing
bondage to you and gave us all a send-off into
Communism? ... What if I was in danger of being
surrounded and taken possession of by Mrs. Cragin, so
that I could not be a free medium of the Community
spirit or do my duty to the young in behalf of the
ascending fellowship? It seems now clear to me that
this was the meaning of Mrs. Cragin's withdrawal."
*** Cindi Starts ***
The first extra-marital conquest has a special feel.
John Humphrey probably remembered his, Harriet's,
George and Mary's theoretical discourse, then escorting
Mary to his bedchamber, probably clearing Harriet's
dressing gown from the wardrobe hook. More likely, he
called Harriet in to do it.
Can't you hear his authority? "Fear not, my dear Mrs.
Cragin. My seed is secured within my loins, promising
you ecstasy upon ecstasy. Love me only as you would
love Christ Jesus. George never showed you this way,
I'll wager, where you bend over the end of the bed."
After Noyes "married" Mary, so to speak, we just read
how he ruled that she needed to knock it off with her
husband. "Thy will be done," she conceded. As Holly's
paper is going to prove, John Humphrey was one good
talker.
*** Cindi Ends ***
EXPEDIENT PROPRIETY
In 1850 and 1851, grand juries heard complaints about
the Perfectionists. Ten indictments loomed, one
precipitated by the severe whipping by member Henry
Seymour of his mentally disturbed wife Tryphena. She
had been "crying nights, wandering about, frightening
the children, and talking incoherently." Tryphena was
one of the first locals to join the group, accepting
with difficulty the sexual obligation. Part of
Tryphena's mental instability may have been associated
with this hesitation.
In January 1852 The Observer, a New York paper,
launched a crusade against Noyes, the Tryphena
publicity fostering comparison to the polygamous
Mormons. Noyes feared, "It is quite possible that the
agitation which The New York Observer has stirred up
may compel the authorities to prosecute the
indictment."
Noyes proposed a temporary concession: discontinue
complex marriage until public feeling moderated. The
Community was "not attached to forms," even its own.
"To be able to conform to any circumstances, and any
institutions, and still preserve spiritual freedom" was
the goal. New effort would be devoted to, somewhat
optimistically, the "abolition of death."
As part of their campaign, the Oneidans invited 80
surrounding families to a strawberries-and-cream party.
More was involved than strawberries, however. As Noyes
observed, "It seems to me that the likeliest way to
quash those indictments is to set the [plaintiffs] to
work as our attorneys, and pay them well for it." The
strategy proved successful. The critics
enthusiastically exonerated the Community, one of them
declaring, "The people in this vicinity will not
consent to have you disperse."
Tryphena's case was settled out of court with Oneida
agreeing to pay asylum expenses and $125 per year if
she were well and $200 if she remained "unsound in body
or mind" after discharge.
Oneida joyfully announced its resumption of complex
marriage on August 29, 1852.
A postscript: Tryphena eventually overcame her disorder
and returned to the Community and her husband, by whom
she had a child. Henry Seymour became an influential
and respected member noted for his horticulture.
*** Cindi Starts ***
When I started reading Holly's notes, I saw something
attractive. And I still see available sex as pretty
cool. But, OK, maybe it's too much of a good thing.
Tryphena gets wasted and her Henry gets to garden.
The Observer had it wrong, though. Perfectionism makes
more sense than Latter Day Sainthood. Mormon men wear
special underwear and get to populate their own
universes. Plus they all get to be Elders. Being a
Mormon wife is like living in a time-share. Being a
Perfectionist wife would have been more like having a
whole hotel. A Mormon woman can't be one of their
Twelve Apostles. My Church is of course just as bad
about females, but we aren't excommunicated for
pointing it out.
And putting complex marriage on hold? Either it's OK
with God or it isn't. You don't let The Observer set
your Commandments. It would be like this:
The Pope says that God says, no abortions.
Yes, but Pro-Choice is whining so the Pope says go
ahead and kill the babies.
Hey Pope, Pro Choice isn't so big these days.
The Pope says stop vacuuming them out.
John Paul II may have lost St. Peter's direct line some
time back, but at least he thinks it's God on the other
end and He's only phoned once. At least the Pope would
know whatever language God speaks.
*** Cindi Ends ***
A POEM
Work, that strengthens heart and brain:
Work, that makes earth bloom again.
Music, bursting, joyous, free,
Charm of order's melody.
Love, sweet mystic fount within.
That gushes heaven, and keeps from sin.
Thanks for thy gifts, O God, above:
The sacred three, Work, Music, Love.
by JHN, September 11, 1856
*** Cindi Starts ***
The guy's awful.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THE MANSION
The three-story red brick Mansion House was begun in
1861, its towers and decoration reflecting the style of
the day. Its eventual-200 rooms and 93,000 sq. ft.
reflected a big family. At the Mansion's center was a
hall with a stage suitable for evening meetings, plays
and concerts. Around a central core were family sitting
rooms and individual or double sleeping quarters.
In 1863 a building for enterprises was added. In 1867
Oneida boasted, "Beside the central mansion are five
large buildings, one for a general dining hall, one for
baking, one for washing by machinery and canning
fruits, and others for various industries... Whatever
is required by comfortable livers, to meet present and
future wants, is in abundance... They have vineyards by
the acre, raspberries, strawberries, and other small
fruits, by 10 or 20 acres, and large pear and apple
orchards. Their barns are as extensive and complete as
any in the land. There is stabling for over one hundred
horses and cattle."
The 1869 Children's Wing housed the nursery, school and
children's entertainment. A Mansion addition in 1877
accommodated an influx of members.
*** Cindi Starts ***
The Mansion's now a National Historic Landmark with
condos. Docents explain about Yankee ingenuity and
college girls get summer jobs wearing high-necked
dresses and making soap, available in the gift shop.
Summer hires don't demonstrate complex marriage for the
onlookers, though you absolutely know that people still
must sneak in the double rooms, it being fun to re-
enact local history.
Holly and I want to visit. I'm curious about the
sleeping arrangements. You knew I'd be! In 1867 there
were 215 residents, 25 of which were under 14. Let's
say it was an even split, 95 men and 95 women. Remove
perhaps 20 percent of the latter for being indisposed
and you still have about 80 pairs. There should be that
many double rooms.
Did their extensive barns have extensive haylofts for
summer afternoons? Doing it in the hay is really
overrated, but it sounds wholesome. Once my brother and
I got watched by a black and white cow.
*** Cindi Ends ***
DRESS
According to the Handbook, "The short dress has been
worn by the Community women since the summer of 1848;
and it is supposed that the style originated at
Oneida." A woman's costume was a fitted waist, high
neck adorned with a while collar, long sleeves, and a
full skirt falling just below the knee. Attire was
completed by pantalets of the same calico and worsted
material reaching to the ankle. Braided straw hats
shaped and trimmed in varied fashion were for social
occasions. For work they bought Shaker bonnets.
Community artisans cobbled low-heeled shoes without
regard to changes of style. Women's hair was short
according to personal taste.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Go to the Syracuse University Library archive website.
Find the photographs of fashionable women promenading
on the Mansion lawn, their starched attire, their pale
beauty, their propriety. We're not talking about a
gaggle of frontier scrappers. We're talking about women
who knew about being ladies.
Look at the feminine figures. Wow! Holly shouldn't
report what's on the outside without knowing what's on
the inside. Scientists look under things all the time.
Here's the scoop.
In 1839, Jean Wearly's corset-making factory made
sculpted breasts and waist a part of fashion. Slowly it
became acceptable to picture corsets in magazines.
There were sleeping corsets, leisure corsets, pregnancy
corsets, nursing corsets, bathing corsets, even
horseback riding corsets. The introduction of the
Singer industrial sewing machine in 1848 made them
cheap.
The 1860's was the "wasp waist" era. As little as 18
inches with rounded hips was the look. Lacing required
either a strong maid or a solid bedpost. The maid would
pull the laces until the corseted madam could not
breathe properly. The unassisted lady would tie the
laces to a bedpost and walk away until compression was
achieved. The 1867 Thompson Patent Glove-Fitting Corset
had a spring latch, snaps at the front and traditional
hooks to prevent it opening accidentally.
A collapsible bustle, manufactured by the Warner
Brothers (not the Bugs Bunny outfit, though), consisted
of graduated circular wires attached to a woven
waistband. When the lady sat down, the wires collapsed
in a flat layer; when she stood, the series rounded her
fanny. Thin women added half-round padded circles of
cloth, tapering at the top and tied with a cord around
the waist. Corsets were up high in front, breasts
resting on top. A less-endowed woman could wear a
series of lace ruffles sewn on a straight band and
starched to stand up under an outer frilly shirtwaist.
This reminds me of when I'd stuff Kleenex inside.
The first bra-like device, a metallic monstrosity, was
patented by Henry S. Lesher of Brooklyn in 1859. Clara
P. Clark's 1874 fabric "improved corset" had fabric
breast pockets held up by shoulder straps that
crisscrossed the back. Olivia P. Flynt's 1876 "bust
supporter" had shoulder yokes like an ordinary blouse.
Patent notes indicate that the straps could be made
thinner and adorned with lace. A double-walled version
for inserted padding enhanced ones charms. I'd have
used the double-walled.
So why this history of snaps and strings? Biblical
Communism didn't preclude advertisement. It's
Darwinian, our next topic. Come bedtime, the girl's
chap would have lots of snaps and strings to tackle. As
things were getting invented so quickly, who knows what
he'd have next to master?
It wasn't as if they could just dart under the quilt.
*** Cindi Ends ***
SCIENCE
Always on the outlook for enlightenment, Noyes
entertained the theory of evolution as early as 1854.
An article by Prof. Agassiz propounding that all
animals, man included, started existence alike, caused
the Community much astonishment and laughter.
In 1863 it was admitted that, granting Darwin's
hypothesis of a tendency towards variation from type,
"only time was required to develop man out of a
monkey." To reconcile the Good Book, Noyes threw in,
"The Bible itself gives an account of a race that dwelt
on the earth before man was created. It walked upright,
had speech, was highly ingenious, and was called 'the
serpent'."
To disseminate such insight, Noyes needed a paper in
New York City supported by an industrial system,
unlimited funds and writers equipped in science and
art. The first step was the removal of The Circular to
Wallingford, Connecticut and the concentration of the
best literary talent upon it. The paper's character
underwent a noteworthy change. Noyes was willing that
its spiritual character should be "left to work itself
out in silent ways."
In 1864, Theodore R. Noyes and George E. Cragin, sons
of the leaders, were sent to Yale to study medicine.
For ten years, Community students took the place of
those who graduated. Several young men studied in New
York City and one was admitted to the bar.
Oneida was visited in 1875 by Prof. Weills, an oculist
and after some talk the good Professor was invited to
fit with spectacles those who needed them. After the
Professor's departure, Mr. Woolworth remarked, "If this
oculist has humbugged us, he has done it handsomely. He
has sold us 75 pairs of spectacles, and we have paid
him $267.50."
*** Cindi Starts ***
As a scientist, I find the promotion of new learnings
most admirable. A section or two back in Holly's notes,
I was pretty upset how their bedtime was playing out.
But seeing Noyes as scientist like myself, I'm less
willing to pass judgment.
Deciding that the first man-like creatures were
serpents is not scientific, however. If the snake that
tricked Eve looked like a person, surely it would have
had sex with her before sending her to seduce Adam. To
not get the first virgin ever! The Mormons probably
have some explanation. Ask one of those boys on
bicycles, the boys with ties. Some years ago, one was
held captive by his ex-girlfriend who had pursued him
from the United States to Britain and he was forced to
make love to her. It made the news. Females raping
males really happens. How'd I get off the subject?
*** Cindi Ends ***
WILLIAM MILLS
William Mills joined the Community with his family in
1857. The terms of admission had been repeatedly
published: "On the admission of any member all property
belonging to him or her becomes the property of the
Association. While a person remains a member, his
subsistence and education are held to be just
equivalents for his labor; and no accounts are kept
between him and the Association, and no claim of wages
accrues to him in the case of subsequent withdrawal."
Notwithstanding, Mills became discontented and made a
claim for the property he had brought in, with
interest. When the Community demurred, he hired a
lawyer. Rather than go to court, the Community paid.
But after an unsuccessful attempt to form a new
community in the west, Mills applied for readmission
and hammered his way back in. This time, it was a woman
problem. Noyes says, "He had quarreled with the
Community at first because he could not make a certain
woman respond to his addresses, and because he could
not make the Community compel her to do so." Mills
became a confirmed malcontent.
When man named Lawton likewise filed claim for wages,
the leaders ruled that the safe course was to have
every member sign the terms of admission. But Mills
would not "put himself under law by signing any
papers." Noyes determined to make a square issue on
this matter and Mills was ousted from his dishwashing
job, the women declaring that they would not work with
him. He fumed and stalled, but finally signed.
In 1864 Mills began to complain about his two daughters
having been "ruined". Having obtained money from the
Community under the pretext of urgent business, he
engaged a lawyer and set damages at $30,000.
Oneida retained Ward Hunt, the best lawyer in Utica,
afterward appointed to the US Supreme Court, and
offered to settle for the value of his original
property in gold, $2,250.
After unsuccessfully attempting to persuade Madison
County to take up his case, Mills got the suit before
the Oneida County grand jury. Mills entered the
courtroom with his deflowered daughters as witnesses.
To his dismay, there in the jury box sat Ward Hunt.
Mills withdrew the case, returned his daughters to
their homes and settled on the Community's terms.
Hunt said afterward that he was never drawn on a grand
jury before, and probably never would be again. "Just
another piece of the Community's damned luck," laughed
a neighbor.
*** Cindi Starts ***
That's $15,000 per ruined daughter, $13,875 if you
discount his other property. This is about ten times
what a slave would have auctioned for in the South and
the Dixie master would have gained both sexual service
as well as lifetime labor. Mills figures that white
skin ups the ante, racist pig! His girls weren't
pregnant, even. Well I'm glad the jury was stacked and
you better be too.
*** Cindi Ends ***
COMMERCE
The Perfectionists at first tried to support themselves
by preserving fruits and vegetables, but grew into such
economic ventures as sawmilling, blacksmithing and silk
production. But by far their most lucrative venture was
the production of member Sewell Newhouse's steel beaver
traps for the Hudson's Bay Company.
A Business Board settled ordinary matters. Every adult
member, man or woman, had voice and vote. Unanimity was
the rule of action. When differences developed, action
was deferred, sometimes for months, until a solution
was satisfactory to all.
Following the 1862 depression due to the Civil War,
business boomed. "It is tremendous to think of," writes
an Oneida journalist, "but we are $715 behind our
orders for bags." Work was given to women in the
neighborhood. Local men were hired for farm work and
teaming and when the trap department was swamped, it
became necessary to decide whether to go back to self-
reliance, or forward to capitalistic hiring. Oneida
opted for capitalism.
During the 1864-69 period, a new trap factory was built
at Sherrill and a new printing office at Wallingford.
The fruit, bag and job-printing businesses were
enlarged. Manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural
implements was commenced. An office was established in
New York City for the sale of the Community products.
Silk jobbing, which had been discontinued along with
the peddling business, was resumed.
The time had come to manufacture silk, instead of
buying it for resale. A Connecticut manufacturer
admitted one Community young man and two young women as
apprentices. On July 30, 1866 before the whole
Community, the winders and spinners were set in motion.
Even with heavy expenditure for new buildings, at the
end of the year the Community owed not a dollar. Within
another year there were 80 outside silk employees.
Theodore was by now generally acknowledged as leader of
the rising generation. This brought satisfaction to his
father, now 55, that the work was not dependent on his
life alone.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Well, sex and business have always been connected, I
suppose. Got a TV?
I guess the one thing I see is that Oneida sold traps
to the Hudson's Bay Company and when we went camping,
my brother and I had this red and black Hudson's Bay
blanket. When Dad would say, "Where's that blanket?"
Mom would find him something else. I think she knew
that we stashed it up above the trail where we could
have fun on it.
*** Cindi Ends ***
LABOR AND FINANCES
The household was always on the lookout for mechanical
devices to lighten the labor. Steam heating was
introduced, doing away with the care of stoves; and
ingenious machinery was invented for laundry,
dishwashing, food preparation, and floor cleaning.
According to literature, "Compulsory labor is neither
sought nor permitted in the Communities. The aim is to
make labor attractive, and a means of improvement; and
this is found compatible with good and industrious
habits. The members occasionally exchange employments,
and many who brought a single trade into the society,
are now equally proficient in many others." Oneida had
no definite rules restricting the time of rising for
work, but had few problems with people taking advantage
of it.
Money was rarely exchanged, but a personal allowance
was recognized in 1862. The treasurer was instructed to
pay quarterly to each adult 25 cents, and to each child
12 1/2 cents to "gratify individual whims, or make
presents to particular friends." Those not wanting the
bounty could, of course, give it back. In 1875 an
annual appropriation of $75 to each man and $40 to each
woman was adopted to cover clothing and incidentals
"for the sake of encouraging economy, and giving a
practical education in money matters to the young."
Supplies could be obtained through Community channels
without currency, however, and some members could
scarcely distinguish one coin from another.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Riddle: How many Victorian virgins did it take to
change an Oneida light bulb?
Answer: Unknown. Thomas Alva Edison hadn't yet made his
contribution and John Humphrey Noyes had.
Ever go to a Club Med? Holly and I want to because you
don't use money and I'm sure I'd find her the perfect
guy. The diving instructors help you tighten your tanks
just right. Linda Lowell says first they do the front
harness. If they think you like it (she says that they
more-or-less reach inside) then they'll do the straps
around the top of your thighs. She about lost it when
he checked to see if it was a finger-width loose on
each inside. This comes to mind because you don't need
money at a Club Med.
Keeping the parallel going, life at Oneida was set up
for getting fondled. Noyes just loved working in the
kitchen. "In the course of the forenoon yesterday I
assisted in the following operations: Bringing milk
from the dairy, making brown bread, making wheat bread,
making Indian puddings, making fruit pies, heating the
oven, putting bread, puddings and pie into the oven,
paring potatoes, dissecting codfish, cooking potatoes
and codfish, putting potatoes and codfish on the table,
taking out part of the contents of the oven and putting
in more.'
You can bet that arms got playfully entangled. And they
didn't need money because the girls already paid big-
time to join.
And here's another parallel. In the normal course of
things, before you even realize there's more to happen,
a brother feels you up a ton. You're on the back of his
bike and you're not going to hang on? He saves you when
you almost fall out of the tree house. You're
wrestling, first time ever on the Hudson's Bay blanket,
and you protest that he didn't really pin you for the
full count of three. He has to pin you longer. And you
don't pay each other money.
So it stands to reason that at Club Med, at Oneida or
at home, things might be the same later that evening.
*** Cindi Ends ***
MATRIARCH
Mother Noyes departed this perfection for the next in
1866.
*** Cindi Starts ***
So here's maybe her obituary.
"POLLY HAYES NOYES, 1790-1866, loving companion to sons
John Humphrey and George, sons-in-law John L. Skinner
and John R. Miller and acquaintance George Cragin.
Being in the state of Full Maturity, Mrs. Noyes enjoyed
allowing Completed Satisfaction to the five
abovementioned Association leaders."
"*** Cindi Ends ***
HOSPITALITY
The Oneida Community was distinguished for its
hospitality. In the summer of 1866, 6,000 visitors came
and the tide was still rising. Ninety-nine meals were
served during one week to persons of more serious
purpose. Seventy Oneida Indians were feted on the lawn.
The Visitors' Register covering 5 1/2 years ending in
1867 contained nearly 16,000 names, and it was
estimated that this represented only one-third of those
actually entertained. A boarding house was opened as an
"outside reception room for the floods and floods of
visitors" about a quarter of a mile from the Mansion.
Strangers were freely entertained even for weeks with
sympathy and kindliness.
After the Midland Railroad was built in 1871,
excursions of several hundred often came in a single
day. Community members dropped their work, impromptu
entertainments were given in the Mansion and the far-
famed Community "dinner without meat" was served to
all. Vegetables, fruits, cereals and dairy products
were the staples. No pork was served, and other kinds
of meat but sparingly.
Visitors were impressed. "Tobacco and ardent spirits
are not used in the Communities; neither are tea and
coffee. The members are not Grahamites, yet use little
meat, preferring fruit and a farinaceous diet. All eat
in one large hall, at many tables... Rarely have I
eaten meals so well cooked, so neat and so good. They
equal, to my taste they excel, those at the best
hotels."
"They have a fine library, and they take the leading
daily and weekly newspapers... A handsome hall,
furnished with chairs and small tables, is occupied by
the members in the evening, in the same manner that a
family gathers around the hearth... At each table are
lamps; the women knit and sew, and I saw a man
knitting. Meanwhile, one will read a daily paper, or
letters from friends; or short addresses. Then they
talk over their affairs. In this way their evenings are
spent until bedtime."
"They employ no physician, for they need none; no
lawyer, for they are peaceable; and no preacher, for
they are perfect... Musical instruments sound through
the halls. They do not work on Sunday, but they do not
call the day sacred. They neither baptize, nor partake
of the sacrament. Their lives are continued worship."
*** Cindi Starts ***
Catch the "not Grahamites"? At least sex never got
commercially associated with Graham Crackers. Once on a
camping trip my brother and I were going to fool around
in our tent after we made s-mores (you know, Graham
Cracker, marshmallow and Hershey bar), but the idiot
got himself so sticky that I wouldn't.
"Until bedtime." The writer stops where so much more
could lend itself to the Victorian prose.
That physician and lawyer bit is misleading. Young
Theodore and George E. were in medical school and the
Community regularly engaged attorneys to stay afloat.
*** Cindi Ends ***
ENTERTAINMENT
The Community was far from ascetic. Card playing and
dancing were favorite amusements and outdoor sports
were encouraged. From the record: "Two dancing classes
have been organized, which practise from six to seven
on alternate evenings... The objections that attach to
dancing in common society are excluded in the
Association. No ball dresses, no late hours, wine and
revelry, no going home in the night air after being
heated with exercise. As a means of improvement in
health and grace nothing can be better, and it may be
made an expression of praise and worship... Dancing
till eight, music by the brass band till half-past,
then our evening meeting ended the day."
But there was a problem. "A suspension of the Brass
Band was proposed and approved with the hearty consent
of the members. They have made a good beginning, and
may look forward to future development. Meanwhile let
there be an ambition to improve the parlor music, and
carry it to a high perfection."
The boss' fiddling was reviewed, "Mr. Noyes... made up
in perseverance what he lacked in natural talent. He
had a ready faculty of understanding and reading music,
though there was more or less fault in his details and
execution. He was criticised for his manner of bowing,
cutting short his notes, etc."
The recreation homes "Joppa" and "Cozicott" afforded
retreats. Joppa was on the eastern shore of Oneida
Lake, fronting on a shelving beach of hard clean sand,
with deep woods in the rear. Cozicott was on the rocky
Connecticut shore. Parties of a dozen or more succeeded
each other for a week's enjoyment of boating, bathing,
hunting, fishing and tramping.
As Oneidans desired to consecrate not merely one-
seventh of their time to God, Sunday was no more sacred
than the rest of the week. For many years they held a
Sunday afternoon religious meeting open to the public,
but they did not scruple to run their workshops
simultaneously if orders were pressing. Learning that
this annoyed some of their neighbors, however, they
discontinued the practice, and the young men were
advised not to hunt or fish on Sunday. Rides, picnics
and excursions became features of the Sabbath.
*** Cindi Starts ***
You know why some churches oppose premarital
intercourse? It might lead to dancing.
Here's my idea of a diary entry by Charity, a younger
member. Keep in mind that Holly's research is all legit
and my contribution is off the top of my head.
"July 6, 1865
"George E., Hiram, Theodore, Lucinda, Tirzah and I
embarked for a Holiday at Joppa. George E. and Theodore
drove the cart smartly while Hiram entertained us with
his banjo. Upon arrival we changed into our Bathing
Costumes. The Lake was exceedingly frigid, however, and
affected our bosoms in such a manner that we forbade
the Boys to be in our presence. Afterwards we baked
potatoes.
"That evening we, the young ladies, had amongst
ourselves selected each our evening's partner, but the
young men surprised us with a Plan to which we
acquiesced. Each of us being blindfolded, the three
lads interchanged to bring each of us to three
ecstasies, the male sequence being unknown to us.
Lucinda, being older, and Tirzah, being notably
Playful, were well familiar the fathers of Theodore and
George E., so possessed some idea of Genetic
Similitude. Hiram, however, being little removed from
his own Training, was of less-familiar quality. The
boys, however, upon restoring our sight, professed the
possibility that each had alone pleased his Favorite in
three distinct Manners, a Trick within the Frolic done
to make us Merry. In either possibility, I believe my
concluding acquaintance was with Hiram because he
somewhat failed in containment.
"Within the Mansion, of course, Pleasurable
Satisfactions occur in seclusion. At Joppa, however,
when only revellers are in Company, it is appropriate
within the darkened Common Room for intercourses to be
proximate. In truth it was not at all dark at the time
of our Socialization, but being blindfolded relieved us
of concern. Tirzah, as I noted, becomes audibly
Playful.
"Subsequently rowing upon the Lake, George E. brought
me to pleasure with his oral facilitude. I protested,
of course, but only after my Delight. Such Practice is
discouraged by the older Control Members, but
recognized to occur on Excursions. In feminine
retribution, I dexterously brought him to spill his
seed on my frock. Lucinda later recognized the hue of
the persistent Remnants and encouraged me to prepare
myself on next occasion with a handkerchief. Her advice
proved fortuitous, as both Hiram and Theodore, likely
having been appraised by George E. of my ministration,
took me boating to the same Effect. Of course I
protested, but it being not a Rape, it was to no avail.
"Other diversions included croquet, a evening of
dramatic recitation, declamations and pantomime and
Constitutional Walks. Hiram, the three of us agree, is
a better banjo performer than partner, but then he is
less practiced. Lucinda gave Hiram instruction under a
Hudson's Bay blanket during our return. Tirzah,
however, to playfully disrupt Hiram's concentration,
bared her corset at Hiram's most difficult moment and
caused him to expel into Lucinda. Needless to say, the
older girl was displeasured and criticized Tirzah for
frivolity and Hiram for laxitude.
"Upon returning to the Community, I volunteered for
laundry duty, as my frock merited special attention."
And there's their other place. Think of a young lady
hungrily packing her valise for a holiday. Her
forbidden fruit would be the pulse of her lover's
climax. A male might be induced to relax his continence
in the carefreeness of excursion. To feel his throbs,
she'd willingly settle for a single orgasm herself. The
cabin at eveningtide would sing with the sighs of love
at last completed! She even made up a ditty to share
with her friends.
I'll see men's semen
In my cozy cot at Cozicott.
*** Cindi Ends ***
GOOD TIMES
During Yale's 1867 winter vacation, Theodore started a
powerful revival among the Oneida young folks. This was
followed, at his father's suggestion, by a series of
"Noon Meetings", open to all and lasting throughout the
summer, in which the religious life of the entire
Community was powerfully quickened.
In the first half of that year, 50 applications were
received for membership, mostly from heads of families.
"Hard spirits retreated; good spirits prevailed and
rejoiced."
In 1866, Hepworth Dixon, editor of the London Athenaeum
and author of note, came to gather materials on
American socialism. He visited the Shakers at New
Lebanon, the Mormons in Utah, and spent two days at
Oneida. When his "New America" was printed in 1867, the
publishers stated that the 55-page account of Oneida
aroused more interest than any other subject discussed.
It was essentially a caricature, good-humored,
tolerant, and charmingly written, letting the Community
speak from its own publications. The book had a
successful run in England and America and was
translated. Appreciative articles appeared in the New
York Tribune, the New York Herald and the Phrenological
Journal.
As the crowning event of this banner year, George Noyes
and Charles S. Joslyn, a younger member who had
recently been admitted to the bar, were sent as
representatives to Europe. They were received with
cordiality by Dixon, placed samples of the Community
manufactures in the Paris Exposition, and attended a
meeting held in their honor by the Fourierists. They
presented copies of the Community publications to the
British Museum and established agencies for their sale
in both London and Paris. They were sought three times
by Lord Houghton, a.k.a. Monkton Milnes, a poet better
known for hosting breakfasts than his writing. They
were guests of honor at a dinner attended by the Lord
Bishop of Gloucester; the Master of the Rolls, the son
of Earl Russell; the Coroner of London; Mr. Faed,
painter of Evangeline, and other notables. They placed
in Dixon's hands a voluminous inquiry by Noyes into the
causes of the decline of marriage, a document Dixon put
to use in his next book, !
"Spiritual Wives". They explained to Professor Huxley
the Community's method of birth control. Dixon said
later that Huxley was "one of those who thought it
desirable to interfere with the natural course of
things in this respect, and that he was a good deal
impressed by the experience of the Community." The Lord
Bishop of Gloucester remarked that the Communists, in
common with all sects in new countries, made great
account of the individual, his exercises and
persuasions; whereas the old world, with its settled
institutions, regarded the individual as subordinate to
fixed guidance.
Noyes began to feel that a more liberal membership
policy could be adopted. "We must not be cowardly about
taking in new members. When we get our new machinery
all working, I shall not be afraid to take in a host -
don't care who they are - good, bad, or indifferent."
Accordingly, in April 1867, ten persons were admitted,
a number unprecedented since the days of the first
ingathering at Oneida.
A 72-page Handbook for inquirers was published and new
branches were established in New York City, Sherrill
and New Haven.
*** Cindi Starts ***
We're talking European High Society, though the Coroner
of London sounds less than celebrity. It was a bunch of
OBE's who wanted some dirty stories, actually. We know
the type. When you're little, they want you to sit on
their lap. "Come and have a sweet, my child." When
you're older, they want you to sit on their lap. "Do
you take dictation, my dear?" Either way, they like it
when you wiggle around. "Why, I do believe you're
ticklish!"
So George and Charles told these Tories (or whatever
they were) about the etiquette of training a 14-year-
old. Those bigwigs had done it with their own scullery
maids plenty, but the American way must have seemed so
democratic.
The Phrenological Journal? "Young lady, this cranial
convexity demands an explanation. Lean back in my lap
while I explore downward for concavities. The key may
also be in an emerging convexity elsewhere, smaller in
stature but similar in presentation to my own."
*** Cindi Ends ***
REVERSALS
Once again the spectres of debt and disease menaced. By
September 1867, the Community owed $81,000. Noyes, as
usual, drew a spiritual lesson. "We must adopt the
principle of limiting ourselves in the midst of
prosperity. I propose that we solemnly submit our
business and organization to God for pruning."
Theodore, now M.D., was appointed to downsize. The
Circular was moved back to Oneida, the boarding house
was closed, the bag and fruit preserving businesses
were given up, the New York City branch was abandoned
and various propaganda schemes were subordinated to
debt retirement.
By January 1869 the Community owed not a dollar and had
invested $20,000 of surplus in United States bonds. An
adjacent 125-acre property was added. The Hall & Elton
factory and water privilege at Wallingford were bought.
Construction of a dam commenced with the objective of
enlarging the silk and publishing business. The fruit
business was revived. The New York City office
reopened. A portion of the old Mansion structure was
moved and equipped for a seminary.
The Business Board was no longer in session. Theodore
appointed young men as department heads who came to him
separately for consultation. There was talk about
"putting the older generation on the shelf."
The whole business administration came up for
discussion in January 1872, when Noyes expressed his
concern, "We must have more spirituality in our
business. Theodore is tempted to rely too much on
ability and financial machinery, and does not
appreciate the tremendous importance of inspiration...
Let all the departments offer themselves for criticism,
and have no irritability about it."
His father's objection was followed by a reorganization
during which Theodore had a nervous breakdown and went
to Dansville to recuperate. On his return four months
later, he did not for several years re-enter the ranks
of business.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Things get bad. Things get fixed. Things get bad again.
Things get fixed again. We get it, Holly. Never marry
an MBA because an MBA paper on Oneida wouldn't catch
that they liked sex.
*** Cindi Ends ***
STIRPICULTURE
Now a Darwinian, Noyes led the Community into a
eugenics program he called "stirpiculture". The most
spiritually ascended followers should mate to produce
the most spiritual offspring.
Encouragement from D.G. Croly, editor of the New York
World, legitimized the prospect of scientific
propagation. In 1868 Noyes published, "We are studying
Darwin and the Bible on stirpiculture; we intend to
build the final wing of our Mansion house next summer,
and give it to the children with the best equipments
that science can furnish for their training; the
Community has so far perfected the discipline of its
affections that it is ready, as with one heart, for a
faithful trial of the experiment of rational breeding."
The resulting experiment extended from 1869 to 1879.
Resolutions were signed by 38 young men and 53 young
women to put aside selfish claims and enter upon this
venture. An informal committee of Central Members
presided over the proceedings, but later an organized
Stirpicultural Committee was placed in charge.
During a typical period of 15 months, out of 51
applications from men and women desiring to become
parents, nine were vetoed on grounds of unfitness. The
Stirpicultural Committee occasionally took the
initiative to bring about combinations it deemed
specially fit.
Sixty-two children were born under this system, none
deaf, dumb, blind, idiotic or tubercular. Of 58
surviving birth, four had died by 1920. According to
the mortality tables, these four deaths compare with
16.4 in rural United States, 20.1 in the total nation
and 21.4 in New York.
Noyes retained enough spiritual energy to participate
in the experiment; after his 58th birthday he fathered
eight children.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Finally were back to something interesting: breeding.
I'm more into the how-to than the outcome, of course. A
long time ago, the Church thought we had to do a bad
thing to achieve a necessary result. With the school
nurse passing out free birth control, kids today see it
as doing a fun thing to get no result.
Presumably by 1869, everybody had slept with everybody
hundreds of times, but at last the chosen males now get
to ejaculate. Those 38 could finally relax. But I'll
bet the 53 females kept sneaking in unqualified males,
since these were the guys who'd last an hour. Why did
the 53 still go four or five years between pregnancies?
The inseminators just weren't as fun.
How much, if any, of the lowered mortality was due to
eugenics, and how much to conditions after conception?
Who's to say?
And, surprise upon surprise, here's old John Humphrey
still pumping away in his "merry damsels", as he called
them. He's one of 38 on the firing range and he gets
eight of the 62 bulls-eyes. Really good sperm, you
think? How about getting to cut to the front of the
line a bunch.
*** Cindi Ends ***
CHILD REARING
Noyes proclaimed that children "belonged to God and the
Community" and that "philoprogenitive" bonds formed
within traditional families were selfish. Don't worry
about paternity. "Bastardy, in any disastrous sense of
the word, is simply impossible in such a social state.
Whoever will take the trouble to follow our track from
the beginning, will find no forsaken women or children
by the way."
According to the Handbook, "During the period of
nursing, the mother devotes herself to her child as
much as she pleases; has a room to herself, and
assistants, if she wishes. When the child is weaned,
say at the age of a year or fifteen months, it is
placed in the general nursery or children's
department... Children remain in this establishment
under the care of men and women selected for their
skill in managing the young, till the age of twelve or
fourteen. The smallest children eat in the nursery at a
table by themselves. The rest eat at the general table
with the family."
The Children's Wing had complete charge. Attention was
given to "diet, clothing, sanitation, and profitable
activity." Since epidemic diseases were vigilantly
excluded, sickness was rare.
But possessive love had to be stamped out at the
earliest opportunity. Even the tender affection for a
special doll had to be burned away. One girl's
autobiography recounts marching to the oven door with
her "long-cherished favorite" in her arms, then staring
as the flames consumed it.
*** Cindi Starts ***
I can't even pronounce that "p" word. If I have a kid,
it's my kid. Period. Same for Holly. We'll be "aunties"
for each other's.
And my Raggedy Anne, I'd never burn up. She's where
we've always kept the rubbers. Being grown up and all,
I could just keep them in my dresser, but my brother
likes pretending like old times. Me too.
Here's one maybe the girls jump-roped to:
Mr. Noyes' notion,
Of perfected motion,
Can hold back an ocean,
Of man's virile lotion.
In school we do mention,
Our father's invention,
For feminine tension,
Assures us ascension.
We'll burn up our toys,
Shun sex with the boys,
For instruction in joys,
Beneath Mr. Noyes.
Probably the boys were scared to death of Charlotte
Miller. If they didn't please her, she could relegate
them to some flabby spinster who'd never get any
invitations otherwise. "So the thing is, Enos, Tirzah's
ma will pull you up against her and she's really,
really hairy, so you have to make sure you keep rubbing
up against the front part because that's where she has
this little place that likes it."
*** Cindi Ends ***
HEALTH
In September 1863, diphtheria gained entrance to the
Community when Stephen Pearl Andrews was visiting.
Noyes, who was away, returned to hear of two deaths as
he stepped from the train, and found Andrews beguiling
the Community with a course on "universology".
According to Noyes's sister Harriet, "We needed Mr.
Noyes's wisdom and sincerity to save us from the
sorceries of Mr. Andrews as much as from the
diphtheria."
There were 60 cases in the Community during this
epidemic, of which five were fatal. But as no deaths
occurred after the introduction of mutual criticism and
ice, the diphtheria campaign was regarded as a victory
of mixed means. Should the Community should go back to
a simple faith treatment of disease, or forward to
scientific aids.
Noyes' answer regarding science, "Yes, if the use is
inspired. Inspiration is the fire, and natural means
are the fuel. We must not pile on so much wood as to
choke the fire... When the furnace is going with a
roar, we can throw in bushels and cartloads of fuel,
and it will take all without being smothered."
Malaria attacked Wallingford in 1871. When 17 members
(about half that family) were stricken at once, Noyes
put the seven worst sufferers aboard the train for
Oneida. Disembarking at nightfall, they learned that
their telegram had miscarried and no one was there to
meet them. Noyes could only find an omnibus drawn by
mules that had just returned from the Community with a
load of girls. The driver being too tired to make a
second trip, Noyes climbed on the box himself.
"Imagine," exclaimed one of the invalids, "mules, tired
with their day's work, going the opposite way from
their stables, with no whip!"
In the summer of 1872, Harriet Skinner was taken
dangerously ill. Noyes advised Theodore and George E.
that while he wanted to learn about the physical
aspect, there was a mental and spiritual side needing
treatment first. He was going to fire at the wild
beasts that were tearing his sister and expected to hit
them. Her fever left, another testimony to God's power.
Theodore was sent to investigate the Turkish bath, just
coming into vogue. A small experimental bath to Noyes
was a new and hopeful weapon against fever and ague.
"In our battle with diphtheria, we used criticism and
ice. Why not now use criticism and the Turkish bath?"
Many surprising cures were reported.
*** Cindi Starts ***
Science is the perception of pattern that exists.
Superstition is the perception of pattern that doesn't.
How about homeopathy where you dilute a toxin so much
that there'd not be a statistical molecule left, but
the water remembers and makes you better? We're pretty
much as dumb today as they were back then. I use the
dilution bit to teach about Avogadro's Number, how many
molecules there are in so many grams. If they call it
Avocado's Number on the quiz, at least they got the
idea about a big number.
I don't know about Turkish baths, but I've tried
Jacuzzis. Hot water makes it difficult for some guys,
but it's a fun place to get naked anyway. The bubbles
make it sort of peek-a-boo.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THEODORE'S CANDIDACY
September 1874 saw the death of Noyes' sister Charlotte
A. Miller, more than 20 years the adviser to the
younger women. That responsibility now fell to Ann
Bailey Hobart, a younger member. The position afforded
Ann power in sexual pairings, her reputation among the
women becoming that of a "ruthless intriguer".
In 1875, Noyes went to Wallingford, leaving William
Woolworth as "father" of the family. Woolworth, past
50, was disinclined to rule in the affairs of the
younger generation. When Ann came for help, he begged
to be excused. Finally Ann suggested that Noyes appoint
Theodore to the position.
But as Theodore was an agnostic, the implications
occupied six evenings. Extracts from the addresses give
the salient points:
Charles S. Joslyn: "In regard to Theodore: First... I
have never even once heard him mention the name of God
or Christ or faith. Second, that in considering whether
persons are suitable for certain places he wholly
ignores their spiritual character."
Harriet H. Skinner: "I should feel safe with Theodore
at the head. In a practical test he does not follow his
own theories, but acts out Community faith... He is in
the constant habit of prayer himself, not to God by
name but to the highest spirit in the universe. His
confession the other night of a desire to serve others
was a signal to me."
William A. Hinds: "It is natural and proper that we
should have a somewhat special interest in Mr. Noyes's
children; but in my opinion it is wrong, wholly wrong,
that relationship should have any influence in
determining such a question as this... Loyalty to Mr.
Noyes is loyalty to his spirit, and not to his flesh
and blood. It does not follow at all that Mr. Noyes
will transmit his spirit, and especially his divine
commission, to his children."
There was more to it than theology, however. Theodore's
infatuation with Ann undermined confidence in his
ability to lead.
Theodore's father's reproached, "Who does not see that
here was the beginning of Theodore's worship of Ann and
the beginning of her spiritual supremacy? It is easy to
trace the process by which she mastered him. Nothing is
so flattering to a spiritual man to have an attractive
woman become his convert and shine forth with him as
his bright particular star... Her phrenology is of the
Bailey type, strong in the love of power and weak in
conscience and veneration."
The nomination of Theodore was withdrawn.
*** Cindi Starts ***
This is getting heavy! As noted at the start, George
Bernard Shaw wrote about Oneida. Shaw also wrote
"Pygmalion" which became "My Fair Lady" where Prof.
Henry Higgins sings, "Let a woman in your life!" Just
read this next paragraph, what historians have to wade
through when that happens.
"In the latter part of 1874 Frank and Helen were in
love and trying for a child. Ann was at this time
laying her nets for complete control over Theodore. The
fact that Theodore loved Cornelia and had had a child
with her provided him with a social outlet which
interfered with her plans. She therefore brought it
about that Frank's trials with Helen were broken off,
and trials with Cornelia, resulting in the birth of
Gerard a year later, were commenced."
I totally give up on who was screwing who, other than
Frank and Theodore were doing Helen, Cornelia and Anne.
Basically what's going on is like some stupid soap
opera where maybe Shakespeare could work it out. Not
me.
Phrenology of the Bailey type! Skull shape correlated
with protracted orgasms, he suspects.
Where I come out is that Anne was one bitch, not who'd
I want scheduling my sex life. A girl like me would
have found so many better places to enjoy the 1800's.
Maybe Dodge City. Certainly San Francisco.
*** Cindi Ends ***
SPIRITUAL SALVATION
The "rapping" phenomena had appeared in Rochester and
popular excitement on the subject of communication with
the dead was running high. The death of Mary Cragin
brought a desire to communicate with her.
Noyes urged, "The... sphere of Christ, the apostles,
and the 144,000 gathered to Christ at his second
coming, is to us the ascending fellowship. But Hades,
the sphere of the miscellaneous dead, is the descending
fellowship. Hades is to this world as woman is to man.
Its only advantage over us is the advantage of
weakness... The first step will be the coming up of the
world of the dead into conjunction with us; then the
two worlds will move along together into the
resurrection sphere."
Noyes authorized his son to undertake a thorough
investigation of spiritualism in the hope that it would
bring him back to a belief in immortality. Theodore
took up the study with enthusiasm, held s‚ances,
visited celebrated mediums and accepted the phenomena
as sufficient evidence. He believed that an
intelligence higher than either him or his father would
lead to unity.
Noyes was pleased. "In a normal spiritual education
there is first a process of external instruction; then
there is a breaking up and separation from this
external process; and finally there is a turning from
an outward to an inward knowledge. Theodore has been
passing through these different stages... If my
estimate is correct, he is going to be far more
effectually joined to me, and far more competent to
help me in my work than he would have been without this
experience."
*** Cindi Starts ***
Noyes wanted to keep screwing Mary Cragin, even if she
was just a visiting spirit. He didn't need the
reciprocal motion.
Noyes: "Son, go see if Mrs. Cragin's back."
Medium: "Come, our departed dearest Mary."
Theodore: "The table trembles!"
Medium's Assistant: "I bumped it reaching for his
thigh."
Medium: "The cloth rises!"
Theodore: "Can she see under the table?"
Medium's Assistant: "Not you. She means the lever under
the tablecloth."
Medium: "Behold such rapping sound!"
Theodore: "Oh my!"
Medium's Assistant: "Am I stroking too fast? He's
bouncing his chair."
Medium: "A voice calls out!"
Theodore: "I'm going to come."
Medium's Assistant: "Through his voice the departed
Mary bids herself present."
Medium: "We yield to her invisible presence!"
Theodore: "I shouldn't have worn white trousers. The
spot will be visible."
Medium's Assistant: "That's why we keep it dim in
here."
Then later,
Theodore: "Father, Sir, I did indeed sense the touch of
Aunt Mary. An intelligence higher than father and son
leads us to such commonality of manifestation."
John Humphrey: "Surely a spiritual plantation would be
allowed. Containment only applies to relations with
earthly acquaintances."
*** Cindi Ends ***
PRODIGAL SON
As 1875 drew toward its close and Theodore was co-
operating heartily with his father, Theodore's role was
reassessed.
William A. Hinds: "I felt some hesitation about the
plan as it was represented to me today, but as I
understand it now, the question is altogether different
from what it was last winter. Theodore comes to us now
as the representative and mouthpiece of his father to
help reorganize the business as his own."
James W. Towner: "I sincerely believe that Mr. Noyes is
the best business man in the Community. As to the
question of Theodore's co-operation with him, I will
say frankly that, if I were to judge Theodore by his
communication last spring... I should feel a good deal
of distrust and anxiety. But I am highly pleased with
what Mr. Noyes says about Theodore, and I have so much
confidence in his inspiration to believe that he knows
whether it is best, and how far it is best, to use
Theodore in the reorganization and control of the
business."
The ayes were unanimous.
The first venture to engage the new administration was
the newspaper. The Circular had 800 subscribers, of
whom nearly 700 took advantage of the free terms. Frank
Wayland-Smith noted that the Shakers had a subscription
list of four or five thousand, and suggested that steps
be taken to extend The Circular's circulation. To this
end The Circular was succeeded by The American
Socialist, a paper designed to become the organ not
merely of Oneida, but of Socialists everywhere.
About 20 persons were left at Wallingford "to wait for
something to turn up." Something did turn up almost
immediately. Theodore proposed that the Wallingford
Community enter the manufacture of spoons. Charles
Cragin was placed in charge. This business carries over
into the silverware business that survives today as
Oneida, Ltd.
*** Cindi Starts ***
And these days we hardly have socialists in America.
It's what happens when you sell out. Who gives a hoot
about who owns the Post Office? Perfectionists surely
didn't care.
So do the folks who make that silverware still sleep
together? Nope, they're just a corporation looking for
tax breaks.
I got Holly an Oneida teaspoon on the Internet for a
show-and-tell when she gives her paper.
"Now I know none of you can see this little spoon from
where you're sitting and I'm not going to pass it
around. But keep in mind that when the first one of
these was made, the Community members were all having
sexual intercourse together. While we in the NEA have
passed no resolution regarding the matter,
deconstructional analysis suggests that the arbitrary
values of that era were challenged. Thank you."
Before I gave it to her, I showed it to my brother and
than mixed some sugar into his ice tea with it. I had
our old Hudson's Bay blanket on the grass already.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THAT HANDY INTERNATIONAL BORDER
In 1878 there were 306 members, Oneida having absorbed
another free love commune. The new Oneidans engaged in
factional struggle with younger members who wanted
things less eccentric. Some members wanted to hold onto
Noyes' leadership; others didn't. Guys were asking for
sex not through the proper channels. The fabric of
community was fraying.
In June 1879, when authorities came to arrest him for
mass rape of little girls, Noyes fled to Canada.
Perfectionist Oneida had lost its justification for
existence. Wife whipper Henry Seymour was one of the
handful of loyalists who followed Noyes northward.
In fear of prosecution for unorthodox sexual practices,
many members quickly married. A committee was appointed
"to consider the advisability of re-organizing upon a
joint-stock basis." On January 1, 1881, the Community
formally replaced its communistic economic arrangements
with Oneida Community, Limited to manage the assets.
*** Cindi Starts ***
We always hear how Canada is so great, not getting into
pointless wars, having socialized medicine, letting
homosexuals marry, speaking French, making those
blankets and calling their Indians "First Nations". So
if they were so enlightened, why'd they grant asylum to
Mr. Child Molester Noyes?
*** Cindi Ends ***
R.I.P.
"JOHN HUMPHREY NOYES, the founder of Oneida Community,
died at Niagara Falls, in Canada, last Tuesday. He was
in the 75th year of his age, having been born September
8, 1811. The public generally have been inclined to
look upon Noyes as naturally depraved and wicked, like
Brigham Young and some of his confreres in Mormondon,
but there is good reason to believe that the Community
leader started his peculiar system under the influence
of what he deemed religious conviction. He was educated
for the ministry and preached for some time in one of
the orthodox denominations, but he early took up the
idea of 'perfection,' as illustrated in the workings of
Oneida Community, and what religion he had was
shipwrecked. Since he was driven out by the raid of the
ministers in 1879, he had resided at Niagara Falls with
his wife, a sister, and a few friends. Besides his
wife, he leaves one legitimate son, Dr. Theodore Noyes,
of New York City."
The Roman Citizen newspaper, Oneida County, April 13,
1886
The Noyes family tree shows John Humphrey as father to
11 by his wife Harriet and one by Harriet Worden. Mrs.
Worden is the member who wrote the memoir about
throwing her doll in the fire.
*** Cindi Starts ***
If you hadn't read Holly's notes, this obit wouldn't
mean much, right? Any of you want them to use the
adjective "legitimate" to differentiate your offspring?
As we already read, Mrs. Noyes was "was free from the
marriage spirit" too.
Holly also said that John Humphrey fathered eight after
age 58, so I'm not sure what the Noyes genealogists
want to count. You know how they're using DNA to figure
out what Thomas Jefferson got going with his slave girl
Sally Hernings? Presidents! Oneida would be a tougher
one.
Who do to suppose old John Humphrey's last sex was
with? A guy like him would still be able at 75. The
answer is Harriet. Both his wife and sister were named
that. Maybe Harriet Worden went to Canada too.
*** Cindi Ends ***
WHAT THE EXPERT SAYS
It's always good to ask the expert. Here's a compressed
excerpt from Nelson M. Blake, Professor of History,
Syracuse University
"Noyes himself deserves more respectful treatment as a
writer and thinker than he has usually received.
However wrong-headed some of his ideas may appear...
Noyes could fight with the weapons of theology, quoting
Biblical verses to support every point and haggling
over the definition of each item. He could also resort
to the would-be prophet's favorite secret weapon, the
claim of direct revelation from God... He exalted human
intelligence... Indeed, this prideful reliance upon
reason may have been his downfall, insofar as he
carried his rejection of conventional morality to
extremes that were logical enough but left out of
account the deep-rootedness of human institutions.
"In his day - and probably in our own as well - there
were all too many loveless and tyrannical marriages,
too many women broken in health through excessive
childbearing, too many babies brought into the world by
shiftless couples unable to care for them properly, and
too many children spoiled through parental indulgence.
On these and scores of less explosive issues Noyes was
a keen observer of society."
*** Cindi Starts ***
Prof. Blake is pretty smart. Not that he knows
anything, maybe (how would we know?), but because he
found something fun to research. I get a raise if I get
a Master's.
"Dear Prof. Blake,
"I am interested in doing research in complex marriage.
Would I do a practicum? I would prefer one in which
males refrained from ejaculation.
"Yours truly,
"Cindi Barton"
*** Cindi Ends ***
A COUPLE OF ENDNOTES
In one of Oneida's quagmire of court cases, a young
member found the atmosphere uncongenial and demanded
$9,150 for $150 of property put in and $1,500 per year
for six years of wages. A month after his succession,
his father wrote the Community, "I did not for a moment
suppose that he had any idea of attempting the absurd
project of extorting money from the Community... I did
however discover, before I parted with him at the
depot, that he had what appeared to me a fearfully
wicked spirit, and thought that I should not be
surprised to hear that he had committed a fearful
crime, which would land him in the penitentiary, or
some worse place."
The would-be extortionist denounced Oneida as a
"spiritual and social despotism... constantly violating
the most sacred laws of God and Man," and calling upon
"Merchants, the Press, Bench and Pulpit" to unite in
"wiping it out." The call failed. The young man was
Charles Jules Guiteau, afterwards the assassin of James
A. Garfield, President of the United States.
*** Cindi Starts ***
He should have deducted from his claim $1 for twice a
week for six years, $624 for services received. And
another $3.57 if he got a pair of Prof. Weills'
spectacles.
Guiteau shot the wrong leader, don't you think?
Garfield didn't deflower young women, no more than
other Presidents, anyway. JFK, as a Catholic, would
have never told them it was for Jesus.
*** Cindi Ends ***
TIRZAH MILLER
Niece Tirzah Miller was John Humphrey's favorite sexual
partner, one generation down, but she liked variety.
Cindi stuck Tirzah in her lake-excursion diary to get
her introduced. Tirzah's memoir tells of her doubts
about Noyes, always soothed by prayer so that she would
continue within the Community. She was a hot item
criticized for her sexual prowess. Uncle George
fathered her first child without the sanction of his
brother. (Lost in the family tree? OK, once more.
Tirzah's mom was Charlotte Miller, one of John
Humphrey's and George's sisters.)
Homer Barron criticized Tirzah's style, "The position
she sustains in the Community, her relationship to you
& your family, and the fact that she is a very
attractive woman, makes it very difficult for an
ordinary man to control the relation, and it seemed to
me that she desired very close relations."
"N", who may be Noyes himself, confirmed, "She liked to
be in a romantic kind of love with somebody -- worldly
marriage romance; getting a man to loving her so that
it is next to impossible to separate them -- so that
when separation comes they go nearly crazy -- and that
she rather enjoyed that kind of domination over man."
Tirzah wrote about her effort to avoid "special love"
analogous to marriage, her quarrels with Noyes and her
serial liaisons. Tirzah chronicled Noyes' suggestions
for improving Community life with live sex performed
during the religious meetings, a plan never
implemented.
*** Cindi Starts ***
My kind of girl! Neither Perfectionists nor Catholics
believe in reincarnation, but maybe there's something
to it. The reason I know were the same is that we both
go to church, we both like guys, but neither Tirzah nor
I would think it should happen during a service.
*** Cindi Ends ***
THE END
****
Holly on the Web
Wherever you found this story on the web, thank you to
the server. My problem is that I've no systematic way
to update the various servers. As literary errors (or
just poor word usages) are made know to me, I'll repair
that which is salvageable on
http://www.asstr.org/~Holly_Rennick/. My website's not
much graphically, I admit, but HTML isn't my native
language.
You can contact me via the site's message form, that
HTML code by the smart people at ASSTR.
I won't be changing the story significantly, so if you
didn't like it before, that much will remain the same.
But if you did like it, an update may read a bit more
cleanly.
Holly
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Please keep this story, and all erotic stories out of
the hands of children. They should be outside playing
in the sunshine, not thinking about adult situations.
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Kristen's collection - Directory 26