MMario: Have you any idea whether the 1903 "The Dying Mother" was published as a poem or as sheet music. Alice Cary died in 1871, and as a very prolific writer had many books of poems published during her lifetime. It could be that if she wrote the lyrics as a poem, it was published during her lifetime, then 30 years or so later someone published it as a song. Of course, it could have been sung for any number of years prior to 1903, and maybe even previously published.

It is doubtful that Alice Cary, not known as a song writer, wrote it as a song, if she wrote it herself, that is . . . if it is in her book, "Ballads, Lyrics, and Hymns", it could be just part of a compilation of tunes which were written by others. More research on my part is definately called for.   Eu