I'm working on the origins etc of children's songs - some of them are sometimes called jumprope songs. I have some old Scottish versions which relate to verses from songs credited to Stephen Foster:

Oh Suzanna "Away down east, away down west, away down Alabama The prettiest girl I ever saw, her name was Suzyanna"

and Campdown Races "I came tae a river and ah couldny get across Ah peyed ten bob for a scabby auld horse etc"

I've a notion that in former unstructured reading I came across statements that Foster rewrote at times from the oral tradition, but I cannot recall where or what. Maybe in G Leman's The Horn Book?

Can anyone help?