The old mill stream at Findlay was about seven feel above flood stage Wednesday and could rise another half-foot or more. There was little romance from the Blanchard River to make anyone want to sing the old barbershop song “Down by the old Mill Stream” by Tell Taylor.
For a little reminiscing, click on the headline to read about Taylor in Findlay Living Magazine. There might be much more at the Findlay Public Library but an attempt to reach the library’s website yeilded only a brusk “Connection Timed Out.” If you don’t know the tune, you will have to google up your own.
Tell was born on a farm near Vanlue in 1876. It was in New York,that Tell began a career as a traveling salesman, singing in stores to sell sheet music.
Tell wrote hundreds of songs, with each one proving to be more successful then the other. On one of his trips to Findlay, in 1908, Tell decided to go fishing along the Blanchard River, as he often did. He began to think about his childhood and the romantic dreamer in him took over. He thought of the girl he once loved and of an old mill that once thrived but had since been abandoned. He went home and penned the words,
"My darling I am dreaming, of the days gone by,
When you and I were sweethearts, beneath the summer sky;
Your hair has turned to silver, the gold has faded too;
But still I will remember, where I first met you.
Down by the old mill stream, where I first met you
With your eyes of blue, dressed in gingham too,
It was there I knew, that you loved me true,
You were sixteen, my village queen, by the old mill stream."
For two years that song would lay in drawer all but forgotten. Two years later, Tell would finally publish "Down By the Old Mill Stream." It became his most popular song selling over 4 million copies.
Tell Taylor (October 14, 1876 - November 24, 1937) died in Chicago of a heart attack and was buried in Van Horn Cemetery, Findlay, Ohio.
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