Harriet Ann Noyes

Harriet Ann Holton was born in Westminister, Vermont on November 28. 1808 to John Holton and Harriet Richards. Her father was a well educated and prosperous lawyer. Her grandfather, Mark Richard, who adopted her when her parents died in 1821, was a former Congressman and Lieutenant Governor. She was fastidiously raised with a good mind, a streak of independent thinking, and a strong religious background. Converted in the revivals of 1831, she joined the Congregational Church in Westminister, Vermont in 1832. She probably met Polly Hayes Noyes in Bible class there. Three years later she received the doctrine of holiness through the testimony of Maria Clark and the writings of John Humphrey Noyes. After a fairly short correspondence, she and J. H. Noyes were married on community principles on June 28, 1838 by Larkin G. Mead in Chesterfield, New Hampshire.

Shortly thereafter, she and her new husband, the Noyes family and George and Mary Cragin began the Association at Putney which was the forerunner of the Oneida Community. Love between Harriet and George Cragin, Sr. and John H. Noyes and Mary Cragin began the first practice of complex marriage. While her husband came to New York in January of 1848, it was not until March 1, 1848 that Harriet arrived at Oneida. While at Putney, she had given birth to her only child: Theodore Richards Noyes, born July 26, 1841.

During Community years she often visited Wallingford and was much in demand as a reader during the early bag-bee days. To all appearances she accepted wholeheartedly the marriage principles of the Community. At one time or another she felt feelings of love for both George Cragin Sr. and Erastus H. Hamilton. At the same time she could congratulate the women who had Community children by her husband.

H. G. Allen attested to her “strong potent influence in Community affairs, earnest, God-fearing, self-sacrificing (and) unselfish.”

After the breakup she and John H. Noyes moved to the Stone Cottage at Niagara Falls, where she occupied the head of the table with her husband at her left. She began the keeping of genealogical information, the archives and wrote a history of Community printing. She died nine years after husband on October 8, 1895 at the age of 86. https://waltsmusings.wordpress.com/best-quilt-1873/