A "I Is Smart" Moment

I am up and about at 5am this morning. Brought the remaining locations I had saved into Google Maps into MapSource, between Scranton PA and Poughkeepsie NY for GLMC USA Grand Tour. Started to review the May trip and decided there was not enough time to concentrate on the remaining segments of the trip, so I decided to Waymark some additional places we had visited. I am up to June 26, 2011.

Waymarking is a fun way to document where you have been, get some merit badges and see how many categories you can cover. Among the categories, I stop at are Vermont Historical Markers. You find these all over Vermont on the side of the roads. They are the green signs with gold trim and offer tidbits of history of what occurred at that spot.

In Putney, VT on Kimball Hill Rd sits one these signs titled Family Home of John Humphrey Noyes. Part of the requirements for this waymark category, one must include the marker text in the long description. I blow up the photo and begin typing the text into Notepad.


Marker reads:

Family Home of John Humphrey Noyes
Eldest son of a Putney family, John Noyes (1811-1886) became deeply religious after a revival meeting in 1831. Convinced that Christ's Second Coming had occurred in 70 A.D. and that all people could now be free of sin, he became a "Perfectionist".

Under Noyes' leadership a small group of followers came together as the Putney Perfectionists. They lived communally, practiced "Bible Communisim", ran a press, and published a paper call the "The Witness".

When they extended the sharing of their financial resources and labor to the sharing of themselves in "Complex Marriage", villagers pressured them to leave. Fearing legal action they left Putney for Oneida, NY in 1848. There in the Oneida Community they practiced their beliefs for the next 32 years.

Vermont Division For Historic Preservation - 2002


I get to the section of Perfectionist and think to myself there is a National Landmark in NY and a society that existed with the same dogma. I get to the Complex Marriage part and I think to myself, I wonder if these 2 sects are related. I finally get to the Oneida Community and realize this spot in Vermont were the same people as the National Landmark I visited in August of 2009 in New York.

For that brief moment I was smart. As I was typing the text of the sign I knew exactly what the sign meant. How kewl is that. Also, I connected two seemingly unrelated dots of visited places in my life to one another, completing a circle. Sends chills up ones spine. (well that might be an over statement)


The Vermont Historic Marker in Putney.
Located on Kimball Hill Rd at N42° 58.6248', W072° 31.5806'
My Waymark as posted.






Oneida Community Mansion House - Oneida NY
Located at N43° 3.6259', W075° 36.1772'
My Waymark



Now I bet all of you have a relationship with this posting. Ever eat using Oneida silverware ??