COMMUNITY CEMETERY

Inscription

COMMUNITY CEMETERY
BURIAL GROUNDS TO HONOR
ONEIDA COMMUNITY MEMBERS.
FOUNDER JOHN HUMPHREY NOYES,
1811-1886, INTERRED HERE.
MANSION HOUSE 0.25 MI. EAST.
ONEIDA COMMUNITY MANSION HOUSE
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

The Oneida Community was a Christian Perfectionist communal society established in 1848 in Oneida, NY. The Community was founded by John Humphrey Noyes. The original site covered over 160 acres, and by the 1870s had hundreds of members as well as multiple industrial factories. The Community lasted until 1879, when it was dissolved and the remaining members re-organized as a business enterprise. Oneida Limited still exists as of 2026.

The Community initially established a burial ground near their Mansion House, but in 1864 the Midland Railroad was planned to run directly through the cemetery location. The Community members moved the cemetery that year, reinterring their families very close by. After the railroad was built, the community members realized the location was still very close to the railroad line and in 1868 they decided they needed to move it again. They chose a pleasant spot a bit further away and again reinterred their family members.

The most notable burial in the cemetery is John Humphrey Noyes himself, the founder of the community. In 1879, Noyes fled to Canada due to his imminent arrest. When he passed away in 1886, he was then brough back from Niagara Falls and interred here in the Community Cemetery.

As of 2026 there are 675 recorded burials in this cemetery. The oldest date of death is 1848, and the most recent internment was in May 2026. The Perfectionist beliefs led the community members to focus on life rather than death and loss, and they preferred simple, unadorned grave markings.

The student-led application for this grant came from a student at Colgate University, working with the staff at the Oneida Community Mansion House. The student researched the Community Cemetery, then gathered and submitted the required materials for the historical marker as part of our Pomeroy Education Program.