From "The Penguin Book Of Folk Ballads" pg421 [ as mentioned by Mick above ]. :

"Next after "The Jam On Gerry's Rock" in popularity among lumbermen, "Jack Haggerty" is an undisputed product of the Michigan woods. Though one would never guess it from hearing the ballad, it originated as a spite song. Its' author was an accomplished raftsman and entertainer in the Flat River camps, named Dan McGinnis. Annoyed that George Mercer, a younger man, had been appointed woods boss over him, McGinnis and a few other mischief-makers concocted this song in 1872 about an affair between Jack Haggerty, a good looking lumberjack at the camp, and Anna Tucker, the belle of Greenville and Mercer's fiancee. Haggerty was hardly acquainted with Miss Tucker. We owe these facts about "Jack Haggerty" to the diligence of Mrs. G.J. Chickering ( see Modern Language Notes, 35 : 465 - 468 ).
Text : R.W.Gordon, New Times Magazine, August 28, 1927".