{{Short description|American journalist, and author}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{infobox writer |name=Arch Merrill |birth_name=Archie Hayes Merrill |birth_date={{birth date|1894|8|5}} |birth_place=Sandusky, New York, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|1974|7|15|1894|8|5}} |resting_place=Brighton Cemetery, Rochester, New York, U.S. |occupation={{flatlist| *Journalist *writer *poet }} |alma_mater=Hobart College |spouse=Katherine Marie Towell |children=1 }} '''Archie Hayes Merrill'''<ref name=hughes>Hughes, James P. [https://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/home-bard-finger-lakes-great-arch-merrill/], ''Life in the Finger Lakes'' magazine, Winter 2008. Accessed January 15, 2026. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713204531/http://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/readmore_article6.php WebCitation archive].</ref> (August 5, 1894 – July 15, 1974) was an American journalist, writer, and poet sometimes called the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York".
==Biography== Arch Merrill was born in Sandusky, New York,<ref name=hughes /> near Arcade, and attended high school near Buffalo,<ref name=papers>[http://library.hws.edu/archives/merrill.asp Archie Hayes Merrill Papers], Hobart and William Smith Colleges Archives. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120030212/http://library.hws.edu/archives/merrill.asp |date=January 20, 2011 }}.</ref> and in 1915 attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, for one year, during which time he worked on the student newspaper, ''The Herald''.<ref name=hughes /> He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1916 and served in France during World War I with Company B, 33rd Engineers.<ref name=hughes /> Upon returning to the States in 1919 after the war, Merrill worked short stints as a newspaper journalist in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Michigan, and New York City through 1922.<ref name=papers />
While working in New York he married Katherine Marie Towell.<ref name=hughes /> The Merrills had a daughter named Marion who was born in 1923,<ref name=roots>{{cite web |url=http://www.mcnygenealogy.com/cem/brighton.htm |title=Brighton Cemetery of Rochester, NY |website=www.mcnygenealogy.com |access-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> the year Merrill became a copy reader with the Rochester, New York, newspaper the ''Democrat and Chronicle''.<ref name=papers /> 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".<ref name=papers />
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.<ref name=papers /> After retiring in 1963, he continued to write his column, "Arch Merrill's History", for 10 more years.<ref name=hughes /><ref name=papers />
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 of upstate New York.<ref name=pflass>http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/Merrill/index.html accessed 15 February 2008 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070918052325/http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/Merrill/index.html |date=September 18, 2007 }}</ref> Sometimes called the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York",<ref name=hws_lake>{{cite web|url=http://campus.hws.edu/NEW/pss/lake/lake-cs8.html |title=HWS: Pulteney St. Survey Online: Seneca Lake |accessdate=2008-02-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704185646/http://campus.hws.edu/NEW/pss/lake/lake-cs8.html |archivedate=2008-07-04 }} accessed 15 February 2008</ref> 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, along with his notes on local history, folk tales, and people he met along the route.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}
Merrill died July 15, 1974, and is buried in the Brighton Cemetery at the end of Hoyt Place in the City of Rochester.<ref name=papers /><ref name="roots"/><ref name=hws_whs_lib>{{cite web|url=https://library.hws.edu/archives/findingaids/pdf/merrill.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2015-05-01 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117032453/https://library.hws.edu/archives/findingaids/pdf/merrill.pdf |archivedate=2016-01-17 }} accessed 01 May 2015</ref>
==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, [1949]) * ''Upstate Echoes'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, [1950]) * ''Slim Fingers Beckon'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, [1951]) $2.00 * ''Shadows on the Wall'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press, [1952]) $2.00 * ''Southern Tier: Volume One'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co.,[1953]) $2.50 * ''Southern Tier: Volume Two'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., [1954]) $2.50 * ''The White Woman and Her Valley'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., [1955]) $2.50 * ''Our Goodly Heritage'' (New York, American Book-Stratford Press / Rochester, Seneca Book Binding Co., [1956]) $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== {{Portal|Biography}} {{Reflist}} {{Refbegin}} {{Refend}}
==External links== *[http://mcnygenealogy.com/book/ Monroe County, New York GenWeb:Online copies of several of Arch Merrill's books]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Arch}} Category:1894 births Category:1974 deaths Category:United States Army personnel of World War I Category:Genesee River Category:Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni Category:Writers from Rochester, New York Category:United States Army soldiers Category:20th-century American male journalists