The city of Oneida is comparatively modern, but the village of Oneida Castle across the river to the south dates back to the time when this was the chief settlement of the Oneida Indians, who moved here about 1600 from the site of what is now Stockbridge in the same county.
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), born at the little port Brouage in the Bay of Biscay, made his first trip to Canada in 1603, and five years later established the first white settlement at Quebec. In the spring he joined a war party of Algonquins and Hurons, discovered the great lake that bears his name, and with his arquebus took an important part in the victory which his savage friends obtained over the Iroquois. In 1615, with another expedition of Indians, he crossed the eastern ends of Lakes Huron and Ontario and made a fierce but unsuccessful attack on an Onondaga town near Lake Oneida. Parkman says: "In Champlain alone was the life of New France. By instinct and temperament he was more impelled to the adventurous toils of exploration than to the duller task of building colonies. The profits of trade had value in his eyes only as a means to these ends, and settlements were important chiefly as a base of discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all others—to find a route to the Indies and to bring the heathen tribes into the embrace of the Church, since, while he cared little for their bodies, his solicitude for their souls knew no bounds."
The name Oneida is a corruption of the name Oneyotka-ono or "people of Stone," in allusion to the Oneida stone, a granite boulder near Oneida Castle which was held sacred by this tribe of the Iroquois. An early traveler who visited the castle in 1677 wrote that the "Onyades have but one town, doubly stockaded, of about one hundred houses." The rest of the tribe lived around Oneida Lake, in the region southward to the Susquehanna. They were not loyal to the Iroquois League's policy of friendliness to the English, but inclined towards the French, and were practically the only Iroquois who fought for the Americans in the War of Independence. As a consequence they were attacked by others of the Iroquois under Joseph Brant and took refuge within the American settlements till the war ended, when the majority returned to their former home, while some migrated to the Thames River district, Ontario. Early in the 19th century they sold their lands, and most of them settled on a reservation at Green Bay, Wis., some few remaining in N.Y. State. The tribe now numbers more than 3,000, of whom about two-thirds are in Wisconsin, a few hundred in N.Y. State and about 800 in Ontario. They are civilized and prosperous.
The history of the modern city of Oneida goes back to 1829, when the present site was purchased by Sands Higinbotham, who is regarded as the founder of the town and in honor of whom one of the municipal parks is named. In the southeastern part of the city is the headquarters of the Oneida Community, originally a communistic society but now a business corporation, which controls important industries here, at Niagara Falls and elsewhere.
The Oneida Community was founded in 1847 by John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1866), and attracted wide interest because of its pecuniary success and its peculiar religious and social principles. Noyes was originally a clergyman, but broke away from orthodox religion to found a sect of his own in Putney, Vt., where he lived. This sect was known as the "Association of Perfectionists" and formed the nucleus of the community which Noyes later established at Oneida. The principles of the new community were based on the idea that true Christianity was incompatible with individual property, either in things or in persons. Consequently the new community held all its property in common. Marriage in the conventional sense of the word was abolished. The community was much interested in the question of race improvement by scientific means, and maintained that at least as much scientific attention should be given to the physical improvement of human beings as is given to the improvement of domestic animals. The members claimed to have solved among themselves the labor question by regarding all kinds of service as equally honorable, and respecting every person in accordance with the development of his character.
The members had some peculiarities of dress, mostly confined, however, to the women, whose costumes included a short dress and pantalets, which were appreciated for their convenience if not for their beauty. The women also adopted the practice of wearing short hair, which it was claimed saved time and vanity. Tobacco, intoxicants, profanity, obscenity, found no place in the community. The diet consisted largely of vegetables and fruits, while meat, tea and coffee were served only occasionally.
For good order and the improvement of the members, the community placed much reliance upon a very peculiar system of plain speaking they termed mutual criticism. Under Mr. Noyes' supervision it became in the Oneida Community a principal means of discipline and government.
The community had its first financial success when it undertook the manufacture of a steel trap invented by one of its members. Later the community engaged in a number of other enterprises, both agricultural and manufacturing. In the meantime they were subjected to bitter attacks on account of the radical beliefs of its members, especially regarding marriage. Noyes, the founder, recognized that in deference to public opinion it would be necessary to recede from their social principles, and accordingly the community was transformed into a commercial corporation in 1881.