Thanks Q my old friend, The fragment I quoted came from a timber worker in New York State in the mid 1960s. My husband heard it on a record of field recordings soon after it was recorded. My H was either in America at the time or in Sweden but it was an American record.
It is an interesting couplet that you quote and it could be connected. Floating verses are common in these sorts of songs aren't they?
The one I quoted was definitely "bart", however, and my H and his friends were puzzled about it at the time. The thing is that it seems strange that you would go to TOWN to get a load of bark - down the river maybe - but town? I know that we can't be too literal with these old songs but still the "bart" intrigues me. I keep thinking that I'll find a reference somewhere to something like molasses being called bart.
The reference I gave about Sam Cowell came from the introduction to the book "The Cowells in America" and there is no documented evidence to back up the claims that he wrote(or rewrote)"Jim Along Josie". I note only that he said he did.