John Humphrey Noyes (In White Coat) 1868
George Bernard Shaw wrote about the goals of the Oneida Community’s eugenics experiment in the Revolutionist’s Handbook, a supplement to his play, Man and Superman ~ “the question of what sort of men they should strive to breed being settled once and for all by the obvious desirability of breeding another Noyes.” Noyes fathered nine of the fifty-eight children born during the experiment.
Who were the children of John Humphrey Noyes? Who were their mothers? What role did they play in the history of the Oneida Community, and the development of the joint stock corporation that became the legacy of the utopian ideas of the John Humphrey Noyes and the Community? Were they as Tirzah Miller, Noyes’ niece, described “the aristocracy” of the Oneida Community?
While living here in the Mansion House, it certainly is apparent to us that being a direct descendant of John Humphrey Noyes is a source of pride and distinction for many descendants.
This post will provide a list of the 13 children of John Humphrey Noyes – four from before the eugenics program and nine during. I am indebted to Walt Lang for his work on the genealogy of the Oneida Community “Family” that is essential for identifying the progeny of Noyes, and to Anthony Wonderley, the curator of the Oneida Community Mansion House, who provided Walt Lang’s lists of children born in the Oneida Community. Future posts will present more in-depth portraits of the Noyes’ children.
Theodore Richards Noyes
Born ~ July 26, 1841 in the Putney Community, Vermont
Mother ~ Harriet Holton Noyes, age 33
John Humphrey Noyes was 30.
Theodore was Noyes’ first child with his only legally married wife. Theodore was educated at Yale as a doctor. He briefly held the leadership of the Community (May 1877-January 1878). He influenced the development of Oneida Community Limited. He had three children during the eugenics experiment: Richard Worden Noyes (later Wayland Smith), Rhoda Hero Noyes (Dunn) and Cora Chadwick Noyes. He also had a child after the Break-up: G. Raymond Noyes.
He died June 6, 1903 at age 61.
Victor Cragin Noyes
Born ~ September 6, 1847 in the Putney Community
Mother ~ Mary Cragin, age 37 – who died from drowning less than three years later
John Humphrey Noyes was 36.
Victor Cragin Noyes was Noyes’ second son. His twin sister, Victoria, died three days after her birth. Victor suffered from mental illness in his youth and was put in an asylum by his father. He recovered and worked in the Community as a horticulturalist and a salesman. He had one child during the eugenics experiment, Corinna Ackley (Noyes), who later married another son of John Humphrey Noyes, Pierrepont.
He died April 8, 1905 at age 78.
Constance Bradley Noyes
Born ~ February 15, 1857, the 7th child born in the Oneida Community
Mother ~ Sarah Ann Summers, age 30. She was adopted by George and Mary Cragin before they joined John Humphrey Noyes in Putney, Vermont.
John Humphrey Noyes was 46.
Constance, sometimes called Consuelo, was Noyes’ first daughter, but towards the end of the Community she refused to admit that Noyes was her father. She worked as a bookkeeper. She had two children during the eugenics program: Karl Hatch and Benjamin W. Barron, one child after the Break-up, Hugh Stanley Reeve.
She died June 4, 1917 at age 67.
Jessie Catherine Baker (Kinsley)
Born ~ March 26, 1858, the 18th child born in the Community
Mother ~ Catherine E. Baker, age 43
John Humphrey Noyes was 47.
Jessie was Noyes’ second daughter. She grew up in the Children’s House in Oneida, and taught children at the Wallingford Community, the satellite colony in Connecticut. She had no Community children. At the Break-up, she married Myron Kinsley and they had three children: Edith Maria Kindley, Albert Kinsley and Jessie Janet Kinsley (Rich). She became an artist at the age of 50, and created a new art form ~ tapestries made from silk braidings. She wrote a memoir of her childhood in the Community, A Lasting Spring.
She died February 10, 1938 at age 79.
John Humphrey Noyes II
Born ~ November 18, 1869, the 44th child born in the Community and the 2nd eugenics child
Mother ~ Charlotte Miller Leonard, age 23
John Humphrey Noyes was 58.
John (called Humphrey as a child) was Noyes’ third son. He was educated in the Children’s House and began working for the Oneida Community Limited at age 19 in the Fruit Department, later the Silk Department. He became a silk representative in New York for the Company in 1903, and then became an assistant to his brother, Pierrepont, when Pierrepont became general manager. John became the Secretary of Oneida Limited. He married the daughter of Tirzah Miller and James Herrick, Hilda Herrick, and they had six children: Adele Charlotte Noyes (Mines, Davies), David Herrick Noyes, Tirzah Miller Noyes (Rothschild, Orton) , Julia Hayes Noyes (Burnham), John H. Noyes III, and Silvia Winifred Noyes (Paquette).
He died May 3, 1940 at 70.
Pierrepont Burt Noyes
Born ~ August 18, 1870, the 49th child born in the Community and the 7th eugenics child
Mother ~ Harriet Worden, age 30
John Humphrey Noyes was 59.
Pierrepont (called Pip as a child) was Noyes’ fourth son. He was educated in the Children’s House, but spent a year at Colgate University. He went into business with his brother Holton Noyes, before working for the Oneida Community Limited in Niagara Falls. At the age of 25, he effectively took over the Company and directed it for twenty years, leading Oneida Ltd to international success. He married his cousin, Corinna Ackley, Victor Noyes’ daughter, and they had three children: Constance P. Noyes (Robertson), Barbara Worden Noyes (Smith) and Pierrepont Trowbridge Noyes (“Pete”). He wrote a moving account of growing up in the Community, My Father’s House.
He died April 15, 1959, at 88
Holton Van Velzer Noyes
Born ~ March 7, 1871, the 55th child born in the Community and the 13th eugenics child
Mother ~ Mary Elizabeth Van Velzer, age 23
John Humphrey Noyes was 60.
Holton (“HV”) was Noyes’ fifth son. Holton moved with his siblings to Niagara Falls to live with his father, John Humphrey Noyes, after Noyes fled Oneida in 1879. He joined Pierrepont in running Oneida Community Limited, becoming a Director. He wrote a history of the Company with his cousin, another eugenics child, Stephen Rose Leonard, son of Charlotte Leonard. He married another eugenics child of the Community, Josephine Kinsley, and they had three children: Howard Holton Noyes, Helen Dorothy Noyes (Wood) and Albert Kinsley Noyes.
He died March 17, 1953, at 82.
Gertrude Hayes Noyes
Born ~ December 29, 1871, the 58th child born in the Community and the 16th eugenics child
Mother ~ Harriet Olds, age 22
John Humphrey Noyes was 60.
Gertrude was Noyes’ third daughter was raised in the Children’s House. She married the son to one of John Humphrey Noyes’ brothers, who did not join the Community. They had four children: John Rutherford Noyes, Richard Woodman Noyes, Margaret Stacey Noyes (Goldsmith) and Charles Hayes Noyes.
She died April 25, 1951, at 79
Irene Campbell Newhouse Noyes
Born ~ June 5, 1873, the 65th child born in the Community and the 23rd eugenics child
Mother ~ Arabelle Campbell Woolworth, age 23
John Humphrey Noyes was 62.
Irene was Noyes’ fourth daughter. She was adopted by Milford Newhouse, when her mother married him at the Break-up. She began her education in the Mansion House, but later went to Cornell University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. She taught school for four years. She married Tirzah Miller’s son, George Wallingford Noyes, her cousin, and they had three children: Imogen Campbell Noyes (Stone), Charlotte MacCallum Noyes (Sewall) and Janet Woolworth Noyes.
She died May 9, 1956, at 83.
Godfrey Noyes
Godfrey Barron Noyes
Born ~ August 22, 1876, the 68th child born in the Community and the 26th eugenics child
Mother ~ Maria Fanny Barron, age 31
John Humphrey Noyes was 65.
Godfrey was Noyes’ sixth son. His mother never married at the Break-up. Little is known about Godfrey.
He died February 2, 1893, at 19
Dorothy Hendee Noyes
Born ~ August 22, 1876, the 86th child born in the Community and the 44th eugenics child
Mother ~ Beulah Foster Hendee, age 29
John Humphrey Noyes was 65.
Dorothy was Noyes’ fifth daughter. She was named Jenny after a Dickens character, “Jenny Wren”, but was soon renamed Dorothy. Her mother married Alfred Barron at the Break-up. She married Stephen Rose Leonard, Charlotte Leonard’ son. They had three children: Mary Irene Leonard (Beagle), Catherine “Kate” Leonard (O’Halloran) and Stephen Jr. She became a poet. A collection of her poems, Buttressed by Moonlight was acclaimed in The New Yorker. Many of her poems are about the Community and the surrounding area. She was a founding member of the Oneida Community Historical Committee.
She died June 3, 1965, at 87
Miriam Trowbridge Noyes
Born ~ August 19, 1877, the 91st child born in the Community and the 49th eugenics child
Mother ~ Helen Campbell Miller (Barron), age 30, the sister of Tirzah Miller and John Humphrey Noyes’ niece
John Humphrey Noyes was 66.
Miriam was Noyes’ sixth daughter. She was adopted by Homer Barron when her mother married him at the Break-up. She married Wilber Earl who was not a descendant. They had three children: Virginia Earl (Brown), Joan Earl (Held) and Wilber Jr. She chronicled the take over of the Oneida Community Limited by Pierrepont and his generation and Theodore Noyes’ influence on their efforts.
She died May 6, 1965, at age 87
Guy Hatch Noyes
Born ~ April 23, 1879, the 100th child born in the Community and the 58th eugenics child
Mother ~ Lenora Hatch, age 21
John Humphrey Noyes was 68.
Guy was also known as George Langstaff Noyes and was Noyes’ last son, the seventh. He was adopted by his cousin, Horatio T. Noyes, when his mother married him at the Break-up. He was a poet, who became addicted to laudanum, exhibiting erratic behavior including jumping off the North Tower of the Mansion House into a snowdrift. He wrote character sketches of Community members. He never married.
He died April 13, 1910, age 39
Stirpicults 1887
