Page 58 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 46 Winter 2024

As this intentional community grew to 45 members
Oneida Community they added a factory, a printing facility, and additional
housing. In 1864, the Wallingford commune, now 14
years old, was chosen to be central location for the
Oneida community’s printing operation.
The Mount Tom Printing House, named after a hill
in Wallingford on their property, produced the community’s weekly
news magazine, “The Circular,” later called the “Ameri-
can Socialist.” as well as philosophical pamphlets
like “Slavery and Marriage: A Dialogue,” and “Male
by Celeste Yanni and right economic relations. They interpreted this to Continence” which were sent to newspapers as well as
mean living as a family in a spiritual community, divid- legislators. Their various secular pamphlets and books
The delayed celebration of Wallingford’s 325 ing work equally between women and men and sharing
th
anniversary because of the pandemic underscored all personal property. ranged from a lock manufacturer’s catalogue with
how larger national events influence our town. Another Women had equal rights and child care was a Current Sign at Community Lake 1,000 illustrations to “The History of Wallingford” by
historical example occurred 180 years ago when our communal responsibility to free women from “forced blackberries, grapes, and horseradish. The group sold Charles Henry Stanley Davis.
then-rural town became one of the sites chosen as a maternity.” Noyes and his wife further agreed to canned homemade fruit jam, a popular sale item. In In 1869, the industrious Wallingford Oneida com-
location for the radical utopian Oneida Community. practice and promote non-exclusive consensual sexual addition, the commune’s diet included shellfish from munity allocated $100,000 to build a dam across
Like the 100,000 followers of American utopian relations called “complex marriage.” In a letter to a the nearby shoreline and wheat and milk from local the Quinnipiac River creating Community Lake. Their
communities at that time, notably, the Shakers and friend, David Harrison, Noyes shared his opinion that farms. In the slower winter months between growing location in Connecticut, the U.S. epicenter of raw silk
Mormons, the Oneida commune, mirrored the dissat- monogamy seemed to create exclusivity, leading to seasons men and women jointly participated in “bag- manufacture provided the impetus for the community
isfaction of believers with the condition of society. The jealousy and quarreling. bees,” assembling and sewing carpet bags to sell. In to attempt to enter the silk industry.
community was founded to put into practice progres- Local clergy and residents disputed their radi- 1857 they began making chains for steel traps being The Oneidas purchased an empty factory, renovat-
sive ideas about the role of women and workers, mar- cal beliefs and life style forcing the group to move to manufactured in the New York Oneida site. ed it, planted mulberry trees, cultivated silk worms and
riage, family life and child rearing. donated property on 140 acres in Oneida, NY in 1848. Mirroring the practices of the parent Oneida com- spun silk thread into raw silk using the horse power
The founder, John Noyes, grew up in a privileged In their new location, the commune continued to grow generated by the dam. At its peak this newly named
southern Vermont family where his father was a mem- and attract new members. By 1851, a small group of munity in New York, this smaller group valued work-life “sericulture” grew to employ 40 people, including local
balance. Daily labor was limited to four to six hours
ber of the Vermont House of Representatives, United loyal followers led by George and Mary Cragin, initial and time saving devices developed by members in the Wallingfordites. Harsh winter weather, the poor quality
States Congress and partner in one of the first chain converts, were dispersed to establish a branch of their larger Oneida community contributed to the efficiency of spun silk thread and the import industry ultimately
stores. John’s mother was an aunt of Rutherford B. communal living model in Wallingford, CT. Because this ended Connecticut’s and the Oneida’s production of
Hayes, the 19 president of the United States. Initially, smaller commune was a rural “recreational and educa- of their work. Leisure activities included planned field silk thread by 1881.
th
John Jr, followed in his father’s footsteps graduating tional retreat” it provided pastoral respite to the larger trips to gather berries in the mountains and visits to With the collapse of the silk industry in the U.S.,
from Dartmouth College and starting as a law clerk for New York membership. Members rotated between the the Connecticut seashore at “Cozicot,” a cottage on the Oneida community sought a new income- gener-
a relative. two locations approximately every six years. Short Beach in Branford. Games like croquet were ating industry. In 1877, the year after a devastating
His life changed dramatically when he had a faith The Henry Allen family, one of a group of “old and encouraged because they allowed men and women to tornado hit Wallingford, the commune repurposed a
conversion during a tent revival and decided to study respectable families of Wallingford” and the Bristol be evenly matched in competition. silk factory and began the manufacture of tin spoons
for the ministry. Noyes entered Andover Theological family of Cheshire, donated a local farmhouse and Required nightly group meetings provided enter- – then silverware. Oneida community elder, Charles
seminary. He then transferred to Yale seminary for its 240 acres of farmland to the group. Mr. Allen and his tainment, singing, and the reflective exercise of “mutu- Cragin, followed the model of the R. Wallace and Sons
more liberal teachings on individuals’ ability to shape family, members of the local Congregational Church, al criticism.” The entire group participated, publicly, in tableware factory located on the lake below the com-
their destinies. While there, Noyes started an abolition- would be excommunicated for their involvement in the complimenting or criticizing character traits of their fel- mune who already used the dam for its own manufac-
ist group, preached at a black “free” church, and gave establishment of the commune in Wallingford. low members. Concerns voiced might include: laziness, turing of silverware. Henry W. Bassett became the first
a sermon professing that salvation was available to all The communal members may have been easily excessive work, frivolity, and self-seriousness; reading
– regardless of sins. For his increasingly radical theo- identifiable to the residents of Wallingford because too little, or masculinity carried to excess. This “spiri-
logical views and actions he was dismissed from Yale. of their dress. Unlike the custom of the time, Oneida tual hygiene” was seen as contributing to the physical
Noyes, convinced that he was a divine instrument women wore short dresses over bloomers called and mental health of the community and growth of its
of God, spread the religious beliefs promoted by “Bible pantalettes and kept their hair short – all in the inter- individual members.
Communism.” A central tenet was the belief that the est of greater movement and practicality. Both men The Oneida community valued life-long learning
second coming of Christ had already occurred in 70 and women wore canvas shoes. When they travelled and dedicated space for books and periodicals. In later
AD. Therefore, people were redeemed of their sins and outside the commune to other towns or areas, they years the commune selected young men to live in Wall-
saved from eternal damnation. These sinless and per- received clothing more like that of the larger society to ingford because of its proximity to Yale College. Thus,
fect human beings were in a perfect position to create avoid undue attention. they educated two of their members to be physicians;
a “heaven on earth.” The group’s first priorities were to feed themselves two in the law; one in mechanical engineering; one in
John Noyes gathered 40 early followers to live and generate income to support themselves. They architecture; and others in varied pursuits. The com-
on and around his family property in Putney, VT. This successfully farmed, providing food for the commune mune planned to have certain graduates establish a
intentional community agreed to practice living in right and extra produce to sell. Factory workers in Meriden “Religio-Educational Publishing” college on Wallingford
relations with God, right relations between the sexes bought seasonal items like strawberries, raspberries, property – which was never achieved. Price List for early flatware c. 1879
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