Bloomers and Bugles

by Arch Merrill

A lighthearted and folksy history that adds a chuckle along with in formation on this period that adds to an understanding of the times. Author was from Rochester New York. An exciting era, the period between the passing of the frontier and the close of the Civil war, comes to life in the pages of Arch Merrill's 17th book. Bloomers and Bugles picks up the threads of regional history where its popular predecessor Pioneer Profiles, left them. The new Merrill book presents a cast of fascinating characters against the backdrop of a changing America. In that time of ferment, of surging expansion of the new age of steam, of reform and new ideas, of seething debate, adventurous men and women of Central-Western New YOrk played stellar roles.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1958

About the author

Arch Merrill was a newspaperman, working for decades for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, first as an editor, then as a writer, and even in retirement as a columnist until 1973.
He wrote many local history books about Upstate New York, published from 1943 to 1969. He is buried in Brighton Cemetery in Rochester.

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arch Merrill makes history approachable. There is a lot of history that people don’t know who live here. It’s sad that we can’t teach more, but I see that we’d be in school forever.

This isn’t the most interesting of his books, but I learned cool new local history .

[LuAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographies of mostly now lesser known upstate New York people who changed history. Now more than ever I want to visit the Auburn homes of Harriet Tubman and William Henry Seward and Seneca Falls, home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and journalist Amelia Bloomer and cradle of women’s suffrage. You can stay at Hartford House in Geneseo and learn about the generations of interesting Wadsworths who lived there including builder General James Samuel Wadsworth, an admirable, big-souled person who literally gave his life for his country in the Wilderness.

I learned the details of the spiritualist Fox sisters. I never knew all that Ezra Cornell did including Pennie’s the telegraph even though I grew up near Ithaca. I didn’t realize Henry Wells and William Fargo started Wells Fargo and hailed from upstate.

[Meg Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short bios of 19th Century western NYS people of note and how they inflluenced/changed life. Reader must be very interested in western NYS history to want have an interest in 19th C NYS Governors. Some is of more universal interest - womens sufferage and the underground railroad are two examples. Much of this book have been covered in earlier books.