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While several generations of the Noyes family are represented in this collection, the main focus is on the lives of Margaret Noyes Goldsmith and her parents. Margaret Noyes Goldsmith (1907-1994) was the daughter of Charles Rutherford Noyes and Gertrude Hayes Noyes, Gertrude being the daughter of John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community in 1848.

Gertrude Hayes Noyes was born in 1871 to John Humphrey Noyes and presumably his wife Harriet Holten. Gertrude spent the first 12 years of her life in the Oneida Community before moving to Niagara Falls to live with her father between 1884 and 1888. She would graduate from Teacher’s College (later part of Columbia University) in 1892, becoming a kindergarten teacher. In 1898 she married her cousin Charles. From then on Gertrude traveled extensively with her husband throughout much of his military career, which included active duty in the Spanish-American War, the Boxer Rebellion in China and World War I. Her letters detail her experiences in manila, the Philippine Islands, Nagasaki and various states in America. When Charles retired in 1923, the family settled permanently in Kenwood, NY. Gertrude spent her later life giving lectures and writing stories- some which were published- on her many experiences as an army wife. She died at the age of 79 in 1951.

Charles Rutherford Noyes was born in 1858 to a privileged family (his father Horatio S. Noyes was first cousin to President Rutherford B. Hayes), growing up in a small town near Boston. His parents were not members of the Oneida Community- on the contrary they disapproved of the social experiment. Charles entered the West Point Military Academy in 1875 and graduated with good standing in 1879. He met his cousin Gertrude for the first time in 1897, and by the time they married in 1898 Charles was 40 years old and had already spent time in the west as a lieutenant of the U.S. Ninth Infantry. Shortly after their marriage, Charles was sent off to San Fernando and later Manila for duty in the Spanish-American War from 1898-1899. He would later be severely wounded in the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1901. Charles retired from his military career in 1923 after 40 years of service in the U.S. Army. He died at the age of 71 in 1929.

Gertrude and Charles had four children. John (1901-1956), the eldest, would follow in his father’s footsteps, graduating from West Point and embarking on a military career that would tragically end in 1956 when he was killed in a plane accident while developing roads in remote parts of Alaska. Richard (1905-?) became a private pilot and engineer, having three sons. Charles (1914-1989) was the youngest, born on Governor’s Island where the family lived for two years before the outbreak of WWI. Charles graduated from Syracuse University and was later accepted into the army where he was sent to the University of Chicago. He became a meteorologist as well as an officer, doing active service in WWII. He married and had two daughters, moving back to Kenwood in his later years to do social work. He died at the age of 75 in 1989.

Margaret was the only daughter and second youngest in the family. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1907 but the family made many frequent moves due to army reallocation which included living in Texas, Chicago and the Philippines by the time Margaret was 5 years old. In 1916, after spending two year on Governor’s Island, NY, her father was sent to Mexico, and since the family couldn’t follow him they settled for awhile in Kenwood, NY where Margaret became familiar with the Oneida Community Mansion House. When WWI broke out in 1917 the family was on the move again, transferring from army post to army post until around 1920 when they finally settled down for good in Kenwood. Margaret graduated from Sherrill High School in 1925 and went on to Cornell University graduating in 1929. She married Walter Goldsmith in 1937. They had a daughter, Anita, who would become a professional medical photographer. Margaret retired to the Oneida Community Mansion House in 1985, spending much of her later years transcribing letters between her parents and other family members while also writing memoirs of her own childhood and memories of the Oneida Community. She died at the age of 91 in 1994.