A fascinating short history of Western New York State:
This part of western New York became famous after the Erie Canal for its history of revivalism, radicalism, communitarian experiments. It was fertile ground for new ideas to take root and spread to other parts of the country. It became a "psychic highway" for New Englanders who left the East and headed West in search of new ways of life.Here is the biography of one of the characters who lived there:
John Humphrey Noyes formed a utopian community in Oneida in 1848 after being driven out of Putney Vermont by neighbors hostile to his perfectionist philosophy and rejection of the traditional institutions of marriage and private property. The 87 original members of the Oneida community would prosper and grow into several hundred, becoming one of the most successful and long-lasting of the utopian communities founded in the early 19th century. The members were not poor or social outcasts, but had money to invest and skills and literacy. Sewell Newhouse invented an animal trap that was manufactured in a large modern factory, beginning a tradition of industry and labor that would carry over into the famous silverware business that survives today. Everyone shared work, food, possessions and all lived in common dormotories in the large Mansion at Oneida. Like Ann Lee and Robert Owen and Joseph Smith, Noyes developed an alternative to monogamy. He abolished "exclusive love" and called his system of communal sex "complex marriage" governed by the priciple of "ascending fellowship" and "mutual criticism." Noyes read Darwin and developed a eugenics program that he called "stirpiculture" resulting in the birth of 58 children raised communally in the Children's House.
