Oneida

Town in Madison County, New York; population (1990 est) 10,900. It is situated on Oneida Creek, 10 km/6 mi southeast of Oneida Lake, and 42 km/26 mi east of Syracuse. Local manufactures include silverware, office furniture, plastics, paper and wood products, burial vaults, dairy equipment, castings, and bearings.

The town was founded in 1834 and named after the Oneida people (a nation of the Iroquois confederacy). It developed as a supply point and depot for the Utica and Syracuse Railroad. In 1848 the Oneida Community settled here. Marked by their belief in perfectionism, complex marriage, collective child-raising, and a nonsexist division of labour, its members flourished as farmers, loggers, and, later, as industrial entrepreneurs, manufacturing steel traps, silverware, and embroidered silks. In 1880, following hostility from the outside community, they reorganized as Oneida Community, Ltd, a joint-stock company manufacturing silverware and dishes. Now the city's leading industry, it preserves some of its early cooperative elements.