Have you ever heard the lines or similar?

Ole John Smith, he's dead and gone. He left me here to sing his song...
Went to the river but couldn't get cross, paid $5 for an old gray horse...
Had a pack of hounds...
Went to the river, but the river ran dry... and that's the last of my lie.


My grandfather used to sing this to me. He was from Mississippi and maybe learned it as a child early 1900's or so.