Tell Taylor

Tell Taylor, born Tell Roberts on October 28, 1876, near the village of Vanlue in Amanda Township, Hancock County, Ohio, was an American songwriter, playwright, composer, lyricist, music publisher, and tenor vocalist. His parents were Clarinda Jane Roberts and John Asbury Taylor. Over the course of his career, Taylor wrote more than 200 popular songs and established himself as a significant figure in Tin Pan Alley publishing.

By 1892, at age 16, Taylor was already appearing in theatrical productions, with his name appearing in newspaper reviews across New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. That year he played the role of Valentine Navaro, described as the audacious hero, in By Wits Outwitted, a play written by Edward Owings Towne, alongside Florence Modena. He also took the part of Bill Smith, a farm hand, in A Glimpse of Paradise, a one-act play by Frank S. Pixley that frequently preceded By Wits Outwitted on the same bill. Taylor went on to perform in vaudeville theaters as a traveling performer and appeared on Broadway between 1902 and 1905, with credits including the musical In New York Town and Quincy Adams Sawyer. He also wrote the Broadway comedies Tiger Lillee and In New York Town.

Before establishing his Chicago publishing operation, Taylor co-founded one of the original Tin Pan Alley publishing houses in New York City alongside composer Ernest R. Ball and James J. Walker, a former New York City Mayor who was then serving as a state senator. In 1907, Taylor launched his Chicago music publishing firm, Tell Taylor, Inc., which he operated until 1922. Earl Kelly Smith, who had been affiliated with the Chicago house since 1908, opened a New York City branch of the firm in 1918.

Taylor's most commercially successful composition was "Down by the Old Mill Stream," published in 1910 and regarded as one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley publications of its era. Among his other notable songs were "He Sleeps Beneath the Soil of France," "I Love You Best of All," "If Dreams Come True," "Little Old Home in the Valley," "Rock Me to Sleep in the Old Rocking Chair," "Some Day," "When the Maple Leaves Were Falling," and "We're In The Army Now," the last co-written with Ole Olsen with music by Isham Jones.

On November 4, 1907, Taylor married Helen Julia Godman, known as Buda, the daughter of Otho and Julia Godman of Chicago. The two had first met approximately two years earlier when Taylor was appearing with a traveling stage company in Adrian, Michigan, and had been a dinner guest at St. Joseph's Convent and Academy, where Buda was a student. They reconnected in Chicago after Buda recognized Taylor at a performance of The Girl Question and sent a note to him backstage. In 1910, Taylor filed for divorce from Buda in Chicago, which was granted later that year.

In 1922, Taylor sold his Chicago publishing firm and formally assigned his catalog to Forster Music Publishers, Inc., located at 216 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, though the rights to "Down by the Old Mill Stream" were not transferred until 1931. Following the sale of the firm, he purchased a farm near his boyhood home on the outskirts of Findlay, Ohio, for his parents, and spent the remainder of his life in that area.

A posthumous legal dispute arose over "Down by the Old Mill Stream" when its original copyright was expiring in 1937. Earl Kelly Smith filed an application to renew the copyright as co-composer, which was granted, and Jerry Vogel Music Company began publishing the song. Forster Music, holding rights acquired from Taylor's heirs, filed suit to prevent Vogel from publishing it, and in 1944 a United States District Court in New York ruled in Forster's favor.

Taylor died on November 23, 1937, in Chicago, at the age of 61, from a heart attack. He was buried in Van Horn Cemetery in Findlay, Ohio.