Blake McKelvey (1903–2000)

Blake McKelvey’s 1949 monograph Rochester: The Flower City, 1855-1890 begins with economic changes on the eve of Civil War before examining the cosmopolitan changes Rochester experienced in the postwar economy, as new migrants settled in the region, politics changed, and society reorganized to focus on social fulfilment. McKelvey writes, “The Rochester of 1855 was a young city, still in its early forties… More than in the case of many favorably located rivals, more than during its own earlier years, the city’s future would depend upon the inspiration and skill of its inhabitants” (pg. v). He continues, “The city of the mid-fifties did not simply grow older and stouter with the passing years. Rather it was, in a sense, born again during the period of this study, for a cosmopolitan era was dawning in Rochester was in a dozen other American cities” (pg. v). This book serves as the second volume of what became a four-volume history of Rochester, though McKelvey later condensed the four volumes into his 1993 book, Rochester on the Genesee: The Growth of a City.

For my own family history research, the history of Rochester’s Irish immigrants and the years 1850 – 1970 are most relevant as that was when my great-great-grandfather settled and lived in the region. By midcentury, the Irish remained “the largest nationality group, with 6786 residents in 1860” (pg. 3). Discussing the early recruitment of the Civil War, McKelvey writes, “The local militia companies which comprised the 54th state guard regiment, aspiring for recognition as artillery or cavalry units, held back, but leading officers among them soon recruited several volunteer companies for the infantry regiment desired at the time. Adolph Nolte, editor of a German weekly, recruited a company from among his countrymen, and Irish leaders formed similar plans” (pg. 64). Further, “Local recruiting continued almost without letup until the spring of 1862. The payment of bounties, ranging up to $100 late in 1861 and rising as high as $300 the next year, speeded enlistments. Various appeals to the Irish and Germans led to the formation of special national units which held local interest throughout their service. Two regiments recruited in the summer of 1862, the 108th and the 140th – the latter composed almost entirely of Rochester men – were destined to identify the city with practically every battle in the Virginia theater during the last three years of the war” (pg. 89). Amid the chaos of the war, Irish and Irish-descended citizens in Rochester continued their charitable work, raising “nearly five thousand dollars to relieve suffering in their homeland” (pg. 79). Returning to demographics, McKelvey writes, “A slight increase in the number of Rochester’s Irish-born residents during this period may have resulted from these troubles in the homeland, but the 6484 of 1890 represented an equally slight drop from the 1855 total. Their native-born children, however, doubled that figure and with third generation Irish-Americans, they comprised nearly a fourth of Rochester’s population by 1890” (pgs. 376-377).

The book will appeal to anyone researching Rochester’s history, though much of McKelvey’s work can be found in more recent volumes including the aforementioned Rochester on the Genesee and even his 1984 book promoting the city’s sesquicentennial, Rochester: A Brief History. That said, those who want to learn as much as possible about the Flower City are encouraged to track down a copy of this out-of-print work.… (plus d'informations)

Blake McKelvey’s 1945 monograph Rochester: The Water-Power City, 1812-1854 traces the history of Rochester beginning with the end of the last glacial age and early Haudenosaunee settlement through early Anglo-American settlement including early mills, Colonel Nathaniel Rochester’s settlement, the incorporation of Rochesterville, and more. He concludes in 1854, with a city and a nation on the eve of Civil War while enjoying rapid economic expansion. City historian Dexter Perkins writes in his preface, “The present volume represents if not a unique, at any rate a most striking, achievement, the preparation of a history of an important American city on the basis of careful research, exact scholarship, and expert judgment all provided for by municipal funds” (pg. v). This sets the work in the early historiography of public history while linking it with the civic movements of postwar America. In his forward, McKelvey argues, “Rochester’s development athwart the major east-west population and trade highway of the second quarter of the nineteenth century not only accounts for many of its features but also links the local story with main trends in American history. Analysis of the forces playing within the evolving urban scene at the Genesee falls affords distinctive rewards, both to the student of social history and to the citizen interested in his local heritage, for within the space of a short half-century a neglected backwoods site was transformed into a thriving industrial city which ranked seventeenth in size in the nation at the mid-century and had already attained a measure of cultural self-sufficiency” (pg. vii). This book serves as the first volume of what became a four-volume history of Rochester, though McKelvey later condensed the four volumes into his 1993 book, Rochester on the Genesee: The Growth of a City.

For my own family history research, the history of Rochester’s Irish immigrants and the early 1850s are most relevant as that was when my great-great-grandfather settled in the region. The city’s Irish immigrants played as active a role in reform organizations as any other group, with the Hibernian groups “collecting a total of six thousand teetotal pledges in the county within a period of eighteen months” in the early 1840s (pg. 284). McKelvey further writes, “Foreign-born citizens were becoming sufficiently numerous to support benevolent as well as church and military societies… When the potato famine of the mid-forties turned popular attention to the more urgent need for relief, a fund of $2,647.06 was raised in May, 1847, for that purpose” (pgs. 306-307). By 1855, 7002 Irish-born citizens lived in Rochester, making them “the largest foreign group” (pg. 334).

The book will appeal to anyone researching Rochester’s history, though much of McKelvey’s work can be found in more recent volumes including the aforementioned Rochester on the Genesee and even his 1984 book promoting the city’s sesquicentennial, Rochester: A Brief History. That said, those who want to learn as much as possible about the Flower City are encouraged to track down a copy of this out-of-print work.… (plus d'informations)

Blake McKelvey published Rochester: A Brief History in 1984 in honor of the city’s sesquicentennial. Though Rochesterville was founded in 1817 and became the seat of Monroe County in 1823, the state legislature did not grant a formal city charter until 28 April 1834 so that 1984 was the sesquicentennial of the modern city. For this book, McKelvey condensed material he previously published in his four volume series, Rochester: The Water-Power City, 1812-1854, Rochester: The Flour City, 1855-1890, Rochester: The Quest for Quality, 1890-1925, and Rochester: An Emerging Metropolis, 1925-1961 as well as his two other accounts, Rochester On the Genesee and A Panoramic History of Rochester and Monroe County. Where most of those works were intended for academic historians, here the City Historian writes for a popular audience looking to better educate itself about the city’s history, though he does include references to works like Paul Johnson’s Shopkeeper’s Millennium. McKelvey’s book closely resembles Applewood Books’ histories of cities, villages, and neighborhoods with his neatly-structured eras in the city’s history and extensive reproductions of photographs, paintings, and etchings. McKelvey’s Rochester: A Brief History works well as a basic introduction for those interested in local history or for Rochester-area teachers looking for an accessible volume to use in teaching the city’s history to their students.… (plus d'informations)