Harriet Hayes Skinner

Harriet Hayes Skinner (; July 5, 1817 – September 8, 1893) was an American writer, editor, and religious communalist. She was the sister of John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community, and supported his Perfectionist religious views. Skinner joined the Putney Association and later the Oneida Community, where she contributed to community publications, served for a time as editor of the Oneida Circular, taught composition and spelling, and worked in domestic and culinary roles. She authored the vegetarian cookbook Oneida Community Cooking, which recorded the community's food practices.

Biography Early life and family Harriet Hayes Noyes was born on July 5, 1817, in Dummerston, Vermont, the seventh of nine children in the Noyes family. The family descended from Nicholas Noyes, who emigrated from England and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1634.

Skinner grew up in Putney, Vermont, in a religious household. In 1831, during a revival movement, her brother John Humphrey Noyes experienced a religious conversion that later influenced members of the Noyes family. By 1837, Skinner had publicly expressed support for his theology, including his belief in the possibility of salvation from sin in the present life. Noyes later founded the utopian Oneida Community.

On March 3, 1841, she married John Langdon Skinner (1803–1889), a native of Westmoreland, New Hampshire.

Later life and death In 1881, the Oneida Community dissolved and reorganized as a joint-stock company, which later developed into the silverware manufacturer Oneida Limited.

Publications New Haven Perfectionism versus Methodist Sanctification (1848) Oneida Community Cooking: Or a Dinner Without Meat (Oneida Community, 1873) The Theodores of the Bible: A Lecture (with Constance Bradley Noyes; Oneida Community, ) History of the Fever and Ague War in Wallingford, in Two Letters, reprinted from the Correspondence of the American Socialist (with John Humphrey Noyes; Wallingford Printing Company, 1876)