Skip to main content

McGuire-Wood family papers

 Collection
Identifier: D.210

Biographical / Historical note

Horace McGuire (1842-1914), a prominent Rochester attorney, was born in Syracuse, New York. In 1850 his father left for California in search of gold, where he died. As a result, McGuire received rudimentary schooling before his was apprenticed to a print shop in Syracuse. The family migrated through upstate New York and eventually settled in Rochester in 1857. Here McGuire was able to attend school, and graduated from East High School in 1862. He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Rochester, but did not attend because of his service in the Union army during the Civil War and in the post-war federal occupation of Louisiana. In 1881 the University awarded an honorary bachelor's degree to McGuire (see Box 1, folder 6).

When McGuire returned from his service in the army he took up employment as a typesetter for the Rochester Express. He later became deputy county clerk in the Monroe County Clerk's office where he developed an interest in the law, which he studied in the office of James Conklin. McGuire was admitted to the bar in 1876. The next year he opened a law office with Walter S. Hubbell. His partnership with Hubbell lasted until 1898 when he formed a new partnership with his son-in-law Hiram R. Wood. McGuire was appointed Deputy Attorney General of New York in 1905, a position he held for two years.

On September 24, 1866, Horace McGuire married Alice Elizabeth Kingsbury (d.1906). They had two daughters, Grace (1867-1882) and Alice May (b.1872). In 1896 May married Hiram R. Wood. Their children were Horace, Remsen, Sally and Alice.

A fuller account of Horace McGuire's life can be found in his autobiography (folder 14), which he wrote in 1912. In the autobiography he records his eyewitness account of two famous incidents: the rescue of a fugitive slave from jail in Syracuse in 1851 (the "Jerry Rescue") and a meeting between John Brown and Frederick Douglass just before Brown undertook his raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia in 1859. At the time McGuire was a typesetter at the offices of Frederick Douglass' Paper.

Scope and Contents

The collection includes other items of historical interest, including the diary Horace McGuire kept during the Civil War and his war time correspondence with his mentor William Alling and his fiancee Alice E. Kingsbury. McGuire entered the army as a sergeant in the 18th New York Battery, a unit formed to test the new Billinghurst Gun. He participated in federal campaigns in Louisiana and was a member of the garrison of Baton Rouge in 1862-1863. In 1864, McGuire was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the Corps d'Afrique (later 7th U.S. Colored Artillery) and became actively involved in recruiting blacks from the Baton Rouge vicinity into the Union forces. He was commissioned as a captain, and by act of Congress in 1866 was given the rank of brevet-major.

Among the other items to be found in the collection are a bound account of the McGuire's trip to Britain and Europe in 1895; letters written by May McGuire Wood from Florida to her husband Hiram in Rochester during the winter of 1903; letters to May McGuire Wood written by her son Horace during an automobile trip to Florida in 1927; letters to May Wood from her daughter Sally Wood (later Sally Wood Kohn) written from France in 1927.

Creator

Dates

  • Creation: 1863-1928

Language of Materials

English

Extent

2 box(es)

Access

The McGuire-Wood Family Papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Books, Special Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.

Use

In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was given to the Library by Alice Wood Wynd (granddaughter of Horace McGuire and daughter of Hiram and May Wood) on May 11, 1987. Mrs. Wynd donated Horace McGuire's diary on October 10, 1988.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, item date], McGuire-Wood Family Papers, D.210, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Related Archival Materials

Additional resources:

Horace McGuire's 1912 Autobiography has been transcribed and annotated by Richard W. Kaeuper and is available here, along with an introduction to the Autobiography by Professor Kaueper.

Sally Wood Kohn Papers.

Title
McGuire-Wood family papers
Author
Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Date
undated
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Library Details

Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library

Contact:
Rochester NY 14627-0055 USA