John Humphrey Noyes
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John Humphrey Noyes (September 3, 1811 – April 13, 1886) was a U.S. utopian. He founded the Oneida community in 1848.
Noyes was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and studied at Dartmouth College, Andover Theological Seminary and Yale Theological College. After being forced to move from Noyes' home community of Putney, Vermont to New York by outraged citizens accusing his followers of adultery, the Oneida Community flourished in the 1850s and 1860s. Their more controversial practices, including complex marriage, were later dropped; complex marriage itself was discontinued in 1879, and communistic ideals were also lost as the Oneida Community morphed into a corporation that today has annual sales of half a billion dollars.
References
- Kennedy, David M., et al. (2002). The American Pageant. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.