10-17-25

Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - October 17, 2025

Acquiring a new friend

"We'll be passing the Bovina Cemetery shortly," husband Art announced.

His pronouncement came as we traveled "the scenic route" to our Northwoods cottage. It meant nothing to me, other than he had visited the graves of some relatives there years ago.

"There is a poet of some note buried there. I think his last name begins with an 'R.'"

His memory works that way. I knew more would be coming.

"Think he wrote 'Silver Threads Among the Gold.'"

See, I told you so! Now I had enough to do a phone search.

"Eben Eugene Rexford?" I asked.

"That's it," he answered, almost before I had finished.

Soon, we came to Rexford Road, which runs alongside the Shiocton-Bovina-St. Denis Cemetery.

"Do we have time to stop?" I asked.

We did!

We drove into the hilly picturesque 1896 graveyard. The only living soul there was silently removing dead flowers and weeds from tombstones. A wooden sign hanging from a tree pointed to Rexford's grave.

His tombstone was tall, and beside it was a plaque in a metal frame with a heart on top. His picture and a short biography were on one side.

Sign in the Bovina cemetery

Hart Pease Danks set Rexford's words to music in 1874. One of the first songs ever recorded, it sold more copies than any other in the world in the early 1900s.

Art pulled it up on his phone. As I stood there listening, tears welled up. We've been together 38 years, and, let's just say, the words resonate.

These "hidden stories" intrigue me. I had never heard of Rexford, yet when he died, it was reported in newspapers across the country. I needed to know more.

Born in 1848 in New York, he and his family moved to Wisconsin in 1856, settling on a farm a few miles south of the village of Shiocton. He was 14 when his first poem was published in a New York newspaper. More than 700 followed. Many, including "Crown Him King of Kings," were later set to music and used as hymns. And not everyone had forgotten him. In 1970, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He also wrote dozens of books about flowers, gardening, and cooking, such as "The Making of a Home" and "The American Pure Food Cook Book and Household Economist." Poetry books included "Grandmother's Garden" and "Pansies and Rosemary."

One tip in his "A-B-C of Gardening" made me chuckle:

Don't "fuss" with your plants too much. See that they get all the water they need, as much sunshine as possible, plenty of fresh air, an occasional application of some good fertilizer, and shower them frequently to keep them clean, and be satisfied with this treatment. They object to being treated as some mothers treat their children, who would be much better off if they were let alone after actual wants were provided for. Don't coddle your plants.

In 1880, he moved into Shiocton. He married widow Hattie (Bauman) Harsh 10 years later. According to her 1910 obituary in the Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent, she was "the inspiration of some of his best verse and was his right-hand in his work with flowers and his floricultural writings. She loved flowers as much as he did and their home was always full of plants."

Rexford was also the organist at the Shiocton Congregational Church and Shiocton's postmaster for a time. He wrote articles for Ladies' Home Journal and other magazines. In 1908, he received an honorary doctorate from Appleton's Lawrence University. He died in October 1916.

In 1948, attorney Walter Olen of Clintonville, a town 20 miles northwest of Shiocton, was afraid the poet would be forgotten, so he gave funds for a library addition to provide a home for the Eben E. Rexford collection. It's now in a room in the town's History House and Art, his cousin Kris, and I paid it a visit last month. Al Mueller, the president of the Clintonville Area Historical Society, was our guide.

The ornate red wallpaper, large Oriental rug, leather and wicker furniture, a player organ, a couple of bookcases filled with Rexford's books, and a wooden rocking chair took us back more than a century. Personal touches included a painting of Rexford by local artist Earl Schweger, a photo of "John" - or Jonathon as the Rexfords' cat was sometimes called - and sheet music for "Silver Threads Among the Gold."

John, the Rexfords' cat

Tucked inside one of Rexford's books was a newspaper clipping of another of his poems, "Sewing in White." It's about an expectant mother stitching a white gown for the baby she was hoping for. Inside another was a program from the 1950 dedication of the original Rexford Room.

Rexford's obituary in the Shoshone (Idaho) News-Press said his favorite poem was not his most famous, but one with a similar title - "When Silver Threads Are Gold Again."

Eben Eugene Rexford died 109 years ago this month. Just a few weeks ago, I had never heard of him. But by taking "the scenic route," we discovered a man whose love of writing, home, flowers, and cats made us feel as if we had acquired a new friend.