John Noyes, the eldest son of a Putney family, 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 his leadership, a small group of followers formed the Putney Perfectionists. They lived communally, practiced “Bible Communism,” ran a press, and published a paper called “The Witness.” When they extended the sharing of 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, where in the Oneida Community they practiced their beliefs for the next 32 years.