Thank you, Mark... yes, mudcat is a terrific resource!

Don't think that this was posted earlier. There is a (1947) recording of Merle Travis from album titled Folk Songs of the Hills where he says, "When I was big enough to run around by myself at night, the first place I wanted to go was to the camp meetings, to the brush arbor meetings and listen to them play them good ole songs. I learned a lot of them old songs, but there's one 'specially that I liked better than all the rest, and I remember it today just as well as the day I learned it. The name of it is I am a Pilgrim."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81UUWyQ8rtE

The gospel songwriter John T. Benson Jr. version (mentioned in earlier thread) has identical lyrics as the earlier Merle Travis. I think the Byrds / Sweetheart of the Rodeo version is pretty clearly from the earlier Merle Travis recording (original Columbia release with Roger McGuinn singing, Byrds box set has version with Gram, once you're dead previous recording contracts seem not to apply any longer). I am not aware of any bluegrass groups recording this in the intervening years (which is surprising, I think, given the close relationship between the camp meeting hymns and bluegrass gospel music).

I have always loved this song since hearing it on the Nitty Gritty / Circle album but for other reasons have looked for the 'original' 'earliest' version. My impression is that the Merle Travis version, which he says comes from brush arbor meetings of his childhood, must be a hybrid mixture of general themes common to a number of hymns that first appeared in early 1800s in Methodist camp meeting hymnals (unlike Wayfaring Stranger which is a direct derivative of a 19th Century hymn). I can copy some of the earlier versions that contribute to the specific themes in the Merles Travis version if someone wants them, Kind of cool if the gospel songs developed similar to the early blues songs!