Down By the Old Mill Stream

by Lianne Schneider

Title

Down By the Old Mill Stream

Artist

Lianne Schneider

Medium

Digital Art - Digital Painting/photographic Art

Description

Another in the 'Simple Life' series that began with "Gimme That Ol' Time Religion." This painting is based on a public domain photograph of the old Glade Creek mill located in Babcock State Park in West Virginia.

The Glade Creek Grist Mill is a new mill that was completed in 1976 at Babcock. Fully operable, this mill was built as a re-creation of one which once ground grain on Glade Creek long before Babcock became a state park. Known as Cooper's Mill, it stood on the present location of the park's administration building parking lot.

Of special interest, the mill was created by combining parts and pieces from three mills which once dotted the state. The basic structure of the mill came from the Stoney Creek Grist Mill which dates back to 1890. It was dismantled and moved piece by piece to Babcock from a spot near Campbelltown in Pocahontas County. After an accidental fire destroyed the Spring Run Grist Mill near Petersburg, Grant County, only the overshot water wheel could be salvaged. Other parts for the mill came from the Onego Grist Mill near Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County.

A living monument to the over 500 mills which thrived in West Virginia at the turn of the century, the Glade Creek Grist Mill provides freshly ground cornmeal which park guests may purchase depending on availability and stream conditions. Visitors to the mill may journey back to the time when grinding grain by a rushing stream was a way of life, and the groaning mill wheel was music to the miller's ear. The Glade Creek Grist Mill is a replica of the original Cooper's Mill that was located nearby. The current grist mill, completed in 1976, was assembled from parts of three other West Virginia mills. The park's web site describes the Glade Creek Grist Mill as a living, working monument to the more than 500 mills that used to set throughout the state.

Talk about vintage � here�s Bing Crosby singing this schmaltzy barbershop quartet song called "Down By the Old Mill Stream." This sounds like the original gramophone version too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqVB3VyMfNk

DOWN BY THE OLD MILL STREAM

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.

The old mill wheel is silent and has fallen down,
The old oak tree has withered and lies there on the ground;
While you and I are sweethearts the same as days of yore;
Although we've been together, forty years and more.

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.


Image Copyright � Lianne Schneider http://lianne-schneider.artistwebsites.com All rights reserved.
All images and my personal poetry/prose are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, downloaded, distributed, transmitted, copied, reproduced in derivative works, displayed, published or broadcast by any means or in any form without prior written consent from the artist. Copyright on works derived from or based on images in the public domain applies only to the subsequent manipulation or painting resulting from my changes. The original image remains in the public domain and such images are used with in accordance with international copyright laws.

Uploaded

August 25th, 2012

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