According to liner notes on one of my Smithsonian Recordings, apparently lots of the old time cowboys sang to the cattle at night to keep them calm, and many wrote their own songs. They couldn't transcribe the tune but they posted the lyrics (poems) in cattlemens' newspapers. Only a few original tunes to those cowboy songs are known, such as those by Badger Clark. The Last Wagon was such a song. I have the Slim Critchlow 45 rpm record. Have no idea how he discovered the original poem.

and Hi Sandy... love your records!