Eben Eugene RexfordEben E. Rexford was born on July 16, 1848, in Johnsburg, New York. In 1855, he moved to Ellington, Wisconsin, with his family. When Rexford was 14, the New York Ledger put out his first poems. Rexford wrote many songs, but "Silver Threads Among the Gld," which Hart Pease Danks put to music, is the one that people remember the most. One of the first things to be recorded mechanically was this song. "The Ride of Paul Venarez," which is called a "cowboy poem" even though the author was from Wisconsin, is another poem that keeps getting read. It was made into a song called "Billy Venero'' and has a long and interesting history. Rexford wrote a lot of books. He wrote mostly about gardening. He also wrote a lot of poems and stories. He worked for 14 years at the Ladies Home Journal. In 1908, Lawrence University, where Eben E. Rexford went to school, gave him an honorary doctorate. In 1970, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Read More Read Less