Tirzah Miller's Blog

As we record our experiences living and working in the Mansion House of the Oneida Community, using video, blogs, twitter, working on scripts and proposals, designing interactive experiences on the Web and in a virtual environment, we will present "posts" from our cast of characters - their own words recorded in diaries, letters and personal writings from the 19th Century. 

We begin with our central character, Tirzah Miller, who kept a diary from 1868-1880 of her struggles attempting to live within the principle of complex marriage.  Her diary entries are an intimate glimpse into what it was like for a woman to live in the Oneida Community, especially for the neice and favorite lover of the founder of the Community - John Humphrey Noyes.   

Here is Tirzah's first post:

 
I was born September 13, 1843 in Putney, Vermont.  My mother was the youngest sister of John H. Noyes, the founder of the famous Oneida Community.  Mr. Noyes converted his two younger sisters and brother to his own peculiar views of religious and social life, and then having arranged their marriages with persons of similar views, he entered into co-operation with them, having common ownership of this world’s goods and forming themselves into one large family with himself as the head.

My first recollection of Mr. Noyes is when I was three years old.  There was a lounge in the sitting-room all around the edge of which were pretty silk tassels of variegated colors.  One day one of these tassels was cut off and someone accused me of doing it.  I did not do it, and of course my denial must have been called in question for my next remembrance is of being perched on Mr. Noyes' knees while he, with his arms folded, regarded me with a searching glance and told me to "look him in the eye and tell the truth."  This was my first experience of fear of a human being and a kind of terror seized me; but I must have held to my first assertion for I do not recall any further punishment and the matter was soon passed by and forgotten by everyone but me.  I remember Mr. Noyes afterwards as very kind and gentle to children.
 

A Living Museum

Between 1862 and 1880, more than 300 people lived together in the Mansion House as members of a Bible Communist group, known as the Oneida Community.  They shared everything - property, marriage and the raising of children.  They created the first and only eugenics experiment in the United States, producing over 50 children by selected parents.  This experiment in breeding exposed long-simmering conflicts within the Community, which lead to its break-up in 1880.  The property and manufacturing enterprises ~ animals traps and silverware were the most successful ~ were converted into a joint stock company that became known as Oneida Ltd, the world's largest manufacturer of flatware.

On June 26, 2010, Victoria Carver and Frank Christopher will move into apartment # 255 in the building known as the Tontine ~ built in 1863 and used as the dining room and work area).  We will reside in what is now a living museum. *www.oneidacommunity.org   We will explore the lives of members of the Oneida Community ~ see our Cast of Characters ~ from within the building where they once lived.

What will come of our journey back in time, recording our experiences using 21st Century media tools?  Follow us and see what happens.

Frank

May 15, 2010
This is our first step in exploring the Oneida Community's attempt to create Heaven on Earth - moving into their Mansion House in Oneida NY.

Victoria Carver & Frank Christopher