I originally learned this song from my grandparents of Irish ancestry who lived in eastern Oklahoma. They were originally from Arkansas. There were several "old timey" songs which my cousins & I learned from them that they said they had sung as kids, which certainly could have been a generalization.
   However, when I sometimes accompanied Granddad to the fishin' hole (in the very early 1960's), there were often a couple of gentlemen who fished just up the bank and were from a nearby black community. The two fellows were true gentlemen, and because I was a Music loving child, would always oblige when I requested that they sing. If I was really lucky, it would be a day when one of the gentlemen brought his old guitar, which he plunked as they sang. One of those songs was Polly Wolly Doodle. I no longer recall the differences, but I do recall that they sang a verse with the "n" word, which made me wide eyed as my mother would have washed out my mouth with Lava soap for using that word.