Archie Hayes MerrillHughes, James P
"Down-Home Bard: Finger Lakes Great Arch Merrill"
''Life in the Finger Lakes'' magazine, Winter 2008. Accessed January 20, 2001
WebCitation archive
(August 5, 1894 – July 15, 1974) was an American journalist, writer, and poet sometimes called the "

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of Upstate New York".

Biography

Arch Merrill was born in

Sandusky, New York Sandusky is a hamlet (New York), hamlet in the town of Freedom, New York, Freedom in Cattaraugus County, New York, Cattaraugus County, New York (state), New York, United States. The community is located along New York State Route 98, southeast of ...

, near Olean, and attended high school near Buffalo,Archie Hayes Merrill Papers
Hobart and William Smith Colleges Archives. . and in 1915 attended

Hobart College Hobart College may refer to: * Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges are Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to G ...

Geneva, New York Geneva is a city in Ontario and Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake; all land portions of the city are within Ontario County; the water portions are in Seneca County. The population was 13,26 ...

, for one year, during which time he worked on the student newspaper, ''The Herald''. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1916 and served in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

with Company B, 33rd Engineers. Upon returning to the States in 1919 after the war, Merrill worked short stints as a newspaper journalist in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

through 1922. While working in New York he married Katherine Marie Towell. The Merrills had a daughter named Marion who was born in 1923, the year Merrill became a copy reader with the

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, newspaper the ''

Democrat and Chronicle The ''Democrat and Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York, area. At 245 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's production fa ...

''. He was a reporter for the '' Rochester Journal-American'' from 1927 to 1937, and then returned to the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' as assistant city editor, and for the next 27 years, as Merrill recalled, he "held nearly every post in the city news room". There, in 1939, he began writing the first of an eventual 1,650 stories and columns for the ''Sunday Democrat and Chronicle'', primarily chronicling the history of Rochester and environs. These articles were collected and expanded to form Merrill's long string of non-fiction books. After retiring in 1963, he continued to write his column, "Arch Merrill's History", for 10 more years. A prolific writer, he was best known for his articles in the Sunday paper on history and folklore of the Genesse Valley and the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

of upstate

.http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/Merrill/index.html accessed 15 February 2008 Sometimes called the "

of Upstate New York", accessed 15 February 2008 he authored a number of books, most of which are collections of his articles. His 1943 ''A River Ramble'' is an account of his walk of the entire length of the

Genesee River The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides ...

, along with his notes on local history,

folk tales Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...

, and people he met along the route. Merrill died July 15, 1974, and is buried in the Brighton Cemetery at the end of Hoyt Place in Rochester. accessed 01 May 2015

Bibliography

* ''A River Ramble: Saga of the Genesee Valley'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1943) * ''The Lakes Country'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1944) * ''The Ridge: Ontario's Blossom Country'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1944) * ''The Towpath'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1945) * ''Rochester Sketchbook'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1946) * ''Stagecoach Towns'' (Rochester, NY, Louis Heindl & Son, 1947) * ''Tomahawks and Old Lace: Tales of Western New York'' (Rochester, NY, Henderson-Mosher, Inc., 1948) * ''Land of the Senecas'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press,

949 Year 949 ( CMXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab-Byzantine War: Hamdanid forces under Sayf al-Dawla raid into the theme of ...

* ''Upstate Echoes'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, 950 * ''Slim Fingers Beckon'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, 951 $2.00 * ''Shadows on the Wall'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, 952 $2.00 * ''Southern Tier: Volume One'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 953 $2.50 * ''Southern Tier: Volume Two'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 954 $2.50 * ''The White Woman and Her Valley'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co.,

955 Year 955 ( CMLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * August 10 – Battle of Lechfeld: King Otto I ("the Great") defeats the Hungarians (also ...

$2.50 * ''Our Goodly Heritage'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 956 $2.50 * ''Pioneer Profiles'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1957) $2.50 * ''Bloomers and Bugles'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1958) $2.75 * ''Gaslights and Gingerbread'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1959) $2.75 * ''Fame in Our Time'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1960) $2.95 * ''Down the Lore Lanes'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1961) $2.95 * ''The Underground, Freedom's Road and Other Upstate Tales'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1963) $2.95 * ''The Changing Years'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., 1967) $3.75 * ''From Pumpkin Hook to Dumpling Hill'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Creek Books, 1969) $3.95

References

External links

Monroe County, New York GenWeb:Online copies of several of Arch Merrill's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Arch 1894 births 1974 deaths United States Army personnel of World War I Genesee River Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni American male journalists Writers from Rochester, New York United States Army soldiers