Q: when i upgraded to iCloud, my ical entries did not merge, i do not have a "on my mac" calendar listed under calendars? is there a way to recover the previously entered events and merge with iCloud calendar?

Welcome to the Apple Community.

Yes, you can recover them from your back ups.

You need to disconnect from the Internet before restoring from backup, once you have done this you then need to export the ccalendars to your desktop before re-enabling your Internet connection. When you re-enable your Internet connection the calendars will disappear from iCal, at this point you can then import the calendars you have exported to your desktop. After doing this you should find that the calendars are synced to all your devices once again.