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IDAHistoric Oneida Creek.
OThe Oneida Community.
John Humphrey Noyes.
HE Oneida Community, whose
commercial products are favorably
known all over the world, was a
religious association which derived its ex-
ample of life from the Bible, and was
founded on the “Old Indian Reserve,”
near Oneida, N. Y., in 1848, by John
Humphrey Noyes. Most of its pioneer
members were rugged New England far-
mers and mechanics who were highly
respected and influential members of their respective
neighborhoods, but, like their Puritan forefathers, they
chose to migrate with their families to a new and distant
region in order to enjoy religious freedom. The place at
which they settled on Oneida Creek was in_a sparsely settled
country with rough, miry roads, and was surrounded by
the rude dwellings of the picturesque but decaying tribe of
Oneida Indians. With the exception of a fertile and almost
virgin soil, there was little in 1848 to attract a settler from
snug New England to the Oneida Valley. For this reason
the growth of the Oneida Community into business promi-
nence is not unlike that of historic
men of force and integrity, who, hav-
ing begun life with few advantages,
have struggled with poverty and the ^
wilderness until they have reared for
themselves, by their genius and labor,
a stately home and an enduring „
J	° First Home of the Oneida
name and fame.	Community..
3Nothing
but
Agree-
ment
&?Sk!5!§
|UT the genius of the Oneida Community was a
very simple one, and might be described in the
single word Agreement. It was the simple quality
of Agreement that enabled its members to dwell together
as one family for thirty years, to eat at one table, to hold a
common purse and to change the wilderness into a garden.
Agreement was prized above everything by the Community
and was ardently cultivated from the beginning. No
business move of any importance was ever made without
practical unanimity. If this could not be secured at once
the matter was held in abeyance until, by careful study
and discussion, there came to be but a single mind among
men, women and children.

Where
they
got
it
The source from which the Community found that it
could most surely catch the spirit of Agreement was the
Bible, and its members, old and young, were from the
beginning enthusiastic lovers of that book. No other
literature ever threatened to compete with it in the affec-
tions of the Community. For this reason the followers of
Mr. Noyes earned at a very early day the ever grateful
title of “ Bible Communists.”
Perhaps the “raison d’etre” of the Community could
be explained most simply from its belief in regard to the
Second Coming of Christ. It took Christ’s words in their
simplest meaning in regard to this event, and believed that
it took place mainly in the spiritual world within the
generation of His disciples. Christ being thus the practical
present ruler of the world, the Community deemed it con-
sistent in His followers to adapt themselves to the form of
society which He approved when on earth.
4OREOVER, it seemed reason-
able to the Community in
1848 that there should be
something like the same liberty for
experiment and invention in devising
new and improved forms of social life
that has been permitted, for instance,
in the study of transportation. The difference between the
antiquated stage coach and the Empire State Express is
very great, and is due to unlimited opportunity to study,
invent and experiment. The sincere effort of the Oneida
Community, made at great cost, was to establish a better
and larger Home, and one that would be both a Church
and a Practical School for Improvement of Character.
*
Eike the author of the Declaration of Independence,
the Community considered at the outset that “a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind” required that it
but sent all its publications to the Governor and leading
men of the State, and carefully gave its reasons for associa-
tion to every candid inquirer. During thirty years, it spent
over $100,000 in publishing an absolutely free paper, which
contained a frank record of its daily life. This candid
course met with generous approval, and the Community
enjoyed for a long period of years the friendship of the best
people in America.
should give its reasons for the En-
largement of the Home. It therefore
explained that it regarded its society
strictly as an EXPERIMENT in
which the public could and should
take a deep legitimate interest. It
made no secret of its manner of life,
5Jonathan Burt.
HE gathering of the Community
at Oneida was due to the hospit-
able invitation of Jonathan Burt,
who possessed a few acres of land and a
rude saw mill on Oneida Creek. Of this
man, who afforded the Community a
building place, it might truly be said,
that if Diogenes could have found him he
would have blown out his lantern and
put it away with cer-
tainty. Strong, like a
piece of granite, and simple as a child, he
combined a wonderful enthusiasm for an
unselfish order of society with mechanical
instincts of a high order.
But the cherished idea of the Com-
munity at the beginning was to make a livelihood from
working the soil, and for several years the little paper,
which, in spite of its poverty, it perseveringly published,
bore like a banner on its title-page:	“ Horticulture the *
leading means of subsistence.” The foundation which the
Community had for this idea at Oneida was the possession
of a rich and fertile soil and a sterling man by the name of
Henry Thicker, who had for fruit raising a practical and
painstaking genius. Through his skill the Community had
instant success in introducing and cultivating new varieties
of fruit, and its apples, grapes and strawberries astonished the
native farmers. But markets were distant and hard to reach
in those days, so that the little capital of the forty or more
families, who had
sold their New
England homes
to gather at
Oneida, steadily
diminished, and
they had sunk
forty thousand
dollars before
they groped their
way into manu-
facturing.
6Sewall Newhouse.
began to beg
them with the
HERE happened to be a rude black-
smith’s forge on the Community
land, and Sewall Newhouse, one of
its members, a trapper and hunter by
instinct and a man of fine mechanical skill,
was accustomed to hammer out rude steel
traps at this forge for catching the wild
game which was plenty in the surrounding
woods and streams. These traps, it was
soon noticed, had a relentless grip and
held whatever came into their jaws, so that
the neighboring Indians and farmers’ boys
or barter with Mr. Newhouse to furnish
products of his skill.
From this small beginning the fame of the Newhouse
Trap spread front the Trapper to the storekeepers in the
nearby villages, and at last, after much experience of
hardship and poverty, the Community perceived that it
possessed, in trap-making, the seed of a great manufacturing
industry. More forges were made, the young men of the
Community were taught trap-making by Mr. Newhouse,
and, finally, it was decided to send an agent to Detroit with
a trunk full of traps. This was a great undertaking fifty
years ago, and the man who took them started off with many
misgivings. But the traps sold as soon as shown, so that
the agent returned with an empty trunk and a pocket full of
orders. This was followed by an unexpected letter from the
Hudson Bay Company, containing an order the size of which
gave the Community a long-remembered thrill. In the
space of a few years the Community, from laboriously ham-
mering out a few traps of a single size by hand at a forge,
was making seven sizes by machinery, by the thousand
dozen, and shipping them to all the frontiers of America.
Now gold
by the
million
and
adopted
as the
standard
trap
of the
world
7URING fifteen of its early years the Community did
— not hire any helpers, but may be said to have been
SO laboriously laying the foundation of its business
education. It did all its own work on the farm and in the
garden, barns, shops and household. Assignment of the
various members to the different departments of industry,
under a competent head, was always made early in the
Spring by the Business Board, and was a period of lively
interest. The tastes of each member were carefully con-
sulted, and alternation of labor was provided, when desired,
so that a high degree of enthusiasm was always maintained.
This prevented labor from becoming irksome, besides giv-
ing each one an education in different occupations and
Home of the'Oneida Community in 1854.
stimulating his inventive faculties in many directions.
Thus, a man who worked in the fruit growing one year,
would, perhaps, be busily engaged in the trap shop during
the following season, and in the third year might, if he
chose, be assisting in the kitchen. The introduction of
men as assistants to women in this latter department
resulted in the invention of many labor-saving devices,
such as dish-washers, vegetable-washers and revolving
tables. Many of these things which the Oneida Com-
munity invented forty years ago are now, in slightly
modified form, in general use.
8HESE years in which the
men and women of the
Community did all their
own work were the most interest-
ing, as they were also the happiest,
in their history. Amid their toil,
they cultivated music, both vocal
and instrumental, with, aston-
ishing enthusiasm, and a fine
stringed orchestra of twenty-five
members, which played classical
music, and sweet singers, both
male and female, did much to
lighten the life of labor. Thev
orchestra always played for half
an hour at noon, and these enter-
tainments, with the daily evening
papers and correspondence were
m
meetings in which the
read aloud by a good reader and every occurrence which
was of general family interest reported, made a day of far
more than common interest.
There was one very popular and effective form of labor
in the early years of the Community, which was derived
from the New England custom of holding ‘‘bees” for
“ raising ” barns. When there was a field of corn or some
other crop to be gathered, and it was necessary that the
work be done quickly, the whole force of the Community,
men from the trap forges, women from the kitchen, and
children from the schools, marched to the field to the stirring
music of the fife and drum, and the work was done with as
much enthusiasm as if it were a holiday pastime. In like
manner when the Trap Department could not fill its orders
fast enough, and called for help, there would be a grand
rally of all hands for two hours in the evening to hammer
and rivet together traps. These merry groups, which in-
cluded men, women and the elder children, made a rarely
picturesque scene under the lamplight.
Industry
made
attract-
ive
9This may
seem
harsh, but
in prac-
tice it was
healing,
helpful
and kind
S there could have been no harmonious and effective
business organization without recognized and re-
spected methods of self government, the Community
established in its infancy an exceedingly simple but unique
system, which it called “ Mutual Criticism.” As everyone
knows, criticism of individuals is everywhere going on in
all the relations of life. Nearly all of this is carried on
behind .the backs of the persons to whom it refers, and is,
therefore, not only powerless to effect any improvement,
but is a perpetual irritant. In “Mutual Criticism/’ every
member of the Community submitted periodically and in
silence to having his assembled associates tell him sincerely,
but with kindness, all the points of his character which
needed improvement. The single aim in doing this was
not to find fault, but to remove all causes of dissatisfaction
and to increase fellowship. This simple practice may be
said to have been the right hand of organization in the
Community, and a powerful regulator of all differences.
The member who had submitted to this criticism felt that all
cause of disf ellowship had been thereby completely removed,
and that he could begin a new record. His critics felt that,
having had an opportunity to express themselves about
him, there was no further cause for anything but good
feeling. ‘ ‘ Mutual Criticism ’ ’ was not confined to pointing
out faults in a subject; it took equal cognizance of good
qualities, so that the recipient was often encouraged and
stimulated to further improvement by the knowledge that
he was possessed of unsuspected good.
Being fairly launched by trap-making into manufactur-
ing, and perceiving that it was a much surer and quicker
road to a competence than tilling the soil, the business men
of the Community gradually added other branches. The
first of these was the packing of fruits and vegetables which
were raised from their own fertile gardens. Fruit packing
was comparatively unknown in New York "when it was
iobegun by the Oneida Community. It is
now a great industry with the Community,
giving employment to large numbers of
M people, both in raising the crops and in
packing them at the exact moment when
they are at their best. The exquisite flavor
which distinguishes the asparagus canned
by the Community is so	^______-
4 }\ % celebrated that it has never	fy*
been able to put up enough
to satisfy the demand,
Henry Thacker.	j , ■■%	•
and there is much rivalry	■
among dealers to obtain it. For many years some of the
highest class hotels in New York and other cities have made
the Oneida Community preserves a feature of their cuisine.
There is a tradition that the first fruits that were put
into bottles by the Community, fifty years ago, were packed
at the solicitation of Mr. Thacker, and that the experiment
was mainly an amiable concession for the sake of harmony,
to what was considered a rather visionary idea. The num-
ber of bottles which Mr. Thacker was cautiously allowed
to fill by the Community Business Board was 1,000, and
after these were put up, everyone feared that a rash thing
had been done. However, the goods being packed, an
attempt had to be made to sell them, and one of the Com-
munity business men, who was accustomed to meeting the
world, took a few samples to a distant city and timidly
showed them to a large grocer, ex-
pecting to be rebuffed or laughed at.
Great was his surprise, therefore,
when the grocer, having tasted the
contents of one of the bottles, said
bluntly, “Til take all you'be got.”
iiHY this time the limits which enabled the Community
to do all its own work had long been past, and its
financial condition allowed it to reap some of the
fruits of its labor. A commodious home, with park-like
grounds, was built. Large factories, giving employment
to hundreds of people, sprang up. Literature, Science
and Art were cultivated, and many of the young men
were sent to the best New England colleges.
Home Dwellings of Oneida Community since 1863.
12HERE was one department which ordinary business
organizations do not have, to which the Oneida
Community was compelled to assign a man and a
woman very early in its history. This was for the reception
of visitors, who came daily, not only from neighboring towns,
but from distant cities and foreign lands. The Community
was always a source of deepest interest to the English.
Members of the nobility, lords and ladies, and many well-
known writers, like Hepworth Dixon and Wilkie Collins,
were its enchanted guests. Celebrated musicians like Ole
Bull and Remenyi turned aside unsolicited from their
golden tours to play to the Community without price.
In the Park.
In 1870 the Midland Railroad, now the N. Y., Ontario
& Western, built its line, which extended for more than a
mile through the 700 acres comprising the Community
domain, and a .station (Kenwood) was established within a
stone’s throw of the Community dwellings. This conven-
ience made it very popular for the towns and cities on the
line of the railroad to organize excursions to Oneida Com-
munity, and these parties numbered from 300 to 1,500 at a
time. On such days it took nearly all the active members
of the Community to look after its guests. All were made
There is
an irre-
sistible
fascina-
tion about
people
who are
working
together
in har-
mony
13heartily welcome to picnic on the lawns of the Community,
to visit its gardens and factories, and a free concert of in-
strumental and vocal music, furnished entirely by its own
members, was given in the Community Hall. Many people
in these parties ordered dinner, which was furnished by the
cooks of the Community, and the exquisite flavor of the
fresh fruits and vegetables, culled from its gardens and
cooked with rich cream from its own thoroughbred dairy,
gave the Community a high reputation as caterers.
Some of the Factories at Kenwood.* I * HE manufacture of Sewing and Embroidery Silk,
i which is one of the largest industries carried on by
the Community, was due to the circumstance of one
of the original Community men having
been a humble peddler of silk thread.
Through his knowledge of this business
the Community eked out the uncertain
subsistence of its first years by sending
out its male members to peddle silk, from
house to house, in all the villages within
a radius of fifty miles. These silk
peddlers were sent out two by two, for
the sake of companionship. They journeyed only on foot
and bought their food and lodging from villagers, or got
them by an exchange for silk. The experiences and
adventures of these peddlers, who usually returned after a
week’s absence, were always a source of amusement and
eager interest at the evening meeting.
1
Peddling, as the Community grew in business im-
portance, was succeeded by the wholesale jobbing of silk,
and this had reached large proportions when, in 1866, it
was determined to begin silk-manufacturing. To do this
safely, the Community sent one of its young men and two
of its young women to learn the business of silk-spinning
in a New England factory. After working several months
as ordinary mill hands, these young people returned with
the necessary education, machinery was bought, and the
third large industry of the Community was successfully
begun. One of the women who thus learned to spin silk in
New England is now Superintendent of this business, which
sells annually vast quantities of silk in New York City and
the other markets of this country. A large new factory has
just been completed to supply the increasing demand.
There is a
deep and
well-
founded
conviction
in the public
mind that
the goods
made by a
Community
are pure
and true
15HE manufacture of Silver-Plated Ware was begun
by the Oneida Community in 1877. These Works
stand on the brink of the gorge at Niagara and
their power is derived from that unfailing source. The
Community was among the first to establish itself in manu-
facturing at Niagara Falls and was induced to go there by
the liberal offers of the residents. The chief of these was
the grant of 300 horse-power at a purely nominal price,
which enables the Community to manufacture at the lowest
cost. The capacity of its works is 80,000 pieces per day.
It manufactures a variety of grades, ranging from the
cheapest silver-plated spoons to the highest quality of triple-
plated goods. Only the last are stamped with the name
“Oneida Community.” and any goods bearing that mark
can be relied upon as being the best that can be produced.
The Community has made a specialty of the manufac-
ture of souvenir spoons. During the Spanish war numerous
souvenirs were made illustrating its principal heroes and
events. The first was made immediately after the sinking
of the Maine, and was sold by the thousand gross. The
Oneida Community Niagara Falls Works.New York Journal bought fifty thousand of these and
donated the proceeds of their sale to the Maine Monument
Fund. Since the beginning of the Boer war the Community
has also furnished dealers in London with a very popular
‘ ‘ Tommy Atkins ” souvenir.
People who toy daintily with spoons at five o’clock teas
may never have heard that there are more than one hundred
distinct operations in the manufacture of a tea spoon before
it is ready for the cup. Prince George, the heir apparent
to the English throne, who was visiting Niagara in 1885,
called at the Oneida Community Silver-Plating Works one
afternoon with his suite, and inspected these numerous
processes of spoon making with the deepest interest.
A
The fifth and youngest industry of the Oneida Com-
munity, the Manufacture of Steel Chains, was an outgrowth
of the early necessity for providing chains for its animal
traps. These chains were made for many years by welding
wire links at forges by hand, and these welded links were
replaced later by those known as “ Safety ” links, which are
now made by the Community in three different styles and
are adapted to nearly all the uses to which chains can be
applied. The most popular of these is the American flat
link chain, which was introduced by the Community twenty
years ago. This is a favorite with the hardware trade of the
United States and Canada, besides being exported largely
to Europe. The two other styles are made of wire and are
known as the “Niagara” and “Eureka.” The special
attachments to these chains, such as steel snaps, swivels and
other devices, are unique in their line and of distinguished
efficiency. The steel chains made by the Oneida Community
are worn by the cattle on the plains of Texas and in the stalls
of Canada, as well as by the dogs and horses throughout the
North and West. They form a part of the mechanism of the
great labor-saving agricultural implements and are in use
on nearly every one of the leading railroads of America.
17N 1880, in accordance with the publicly expressed
intention of a lifetime, the Oneida Community, ’by
unanimous peaceable consent, closed the experi-
ment which it had begun forty years before. The return
by the Community to the ordinary forms of society was as
sincere and complete as its original departure. The
members intermarried and their families do not differ
from those of any separate households, except, perhaps, in
a deeper mutual respect and affection, based on many
years of association. In that year, 1880, the Oneida Com-
munity was incorporated as a joint stock company, with
a capital of $600,000 and has since been known as the
“ Oneida Community, Iyimited.’’ The stock was divided
among its members in the proportion of the number of
years’ service which each had contributed to creating the
wealth of the Community. There was no distinction at
the settlement. The women shared equally with the
men. All were comfortably provided for, either through
the dividends accruing from their stock or by remunera-
tive employment. The stream of business prosperity
rolled serenely on, and there was scarcely a ripple to in-
dicate the change from a common purse to a divided
household and separate accounts.
dk
Only
Agreement
In making this radical change the education in harmony
which had been gained by thirty years' experience, was
demonstrated with signal effect♦	The entire property of
the Community was divided without the loss of a dollar
in litigation♦
18N SARIyY all of the original band of pioneers whose
g-Jjg pious hands built up the Oneida Community are
sleeping on a green hillside within sight of the
home which they founded. The stock of the Community,
which is at a premium and not in the market, is held
almost entirely by the children and grandchildren of these
pioneers. The young business men of the Community
are collegebred, besides having a good commercial train-
ing which enables them to keep the products of the
Community up to a high standard, and its methods of
business thoroughly modern. Most of these young men,
with their families, dwell happily at the old homestead,
which retains many attractive co-operative features, such
as a common dining room, library, golf and other recreation
Seen from the Golf Links.
grounds. Those whose oversight of the Community
business compels them to reside at Niagara Falls, Chicago,
New York and elsewhere, look forward with pleasure to
annual visits to the old home.
19HE President of the Oneida Com-
munity, Limited, is Theodore R.
Noyes; the Treasurer is John
rnian, and the General Business
er, Pierrepont B. Noyes. There
ie Directors, who supervise all the
of the Company. The general
as well as the factories for Trap
Theodore r. Noyes. an(j	making, Fruit Packing and
Silk Spinning, are at the original home at Kenwood,
Madison Co., N. Y. The Silver-Plated Ware Works are at
Niagara Falls, N. Y., and there is a factory for the manu-
facture of steel chains at Niagara Falls in Canada. The New
York office is at 413 Broadway, where all the products of the
Community may be seen. There is also an office in Chicago
at 79 Dearborn Street, one in St. Louis at 9th and Locust
Streets, and one at 134 Sutter Street in San Francisco.
Information and Catalogues relating to the Community’s
manufactures can be obtained from any of these points.
20