Oddly enough, the oldest instance I can find of the phrase "great getting-up morning" is in a Quaker publication, Friends' Quarterly Examiner, Vol. 1, No. 3, Seventh Month [July], 1867, page 449:


The Meetings of the Freedmen's Committee were open to all, and were extremely interesting. Many who had been South, bore witness in favour of the Freed People, and spoke of the large outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these poor creatures, and of their fervent daily prayers for our Society; even the infantine voices of children are often heard in prayer and praise.

A coloured woman, named Aunt Sally, attended this Committee, and her heart was so filled to overflowing that she kept asking if she might pray and speak; permission having been given, she poured forth her feelings of thanksgiving and praise, as follows:—

"Kind Father, I thank thee that I have lived to see this blessed day, when I can have permission to meet with such multitudes of Thy people; I never had permission to meet with white people before. Oh! kind Father, bless and praise Thy Holy Name — Great Parent in Heaven; I have been trying to serve Thee, kind Father, many a year, many a year, and expect to remain steadfast and immoveable to the end. Oh! blessed Parent, be pleased to stand by these ministers of the Gospel, and send them to the farthest part of the earth, where the foot of man never trod; stand by them in life, stand by them in death, and keep them till the Great Getting-up Morning, safe in Thy holy hands. Kind Father, bless us all, and let us glorify Thy name.—Amen!"