In Book of World-Famous Music, Fuld says the first-known printing of the familiar music and words of this song was in Tommy's Tunes, published in October, 1917 - with the title "Ohio" and it is "Old MacDougal who has the farm.

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This is #125A from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, from Miss Mary Scarborough of Dare County, "in 1923 or thereabouts." Notice that the wording is just a bit different from the Silber version above.

McDonald's Farm

Old McDonald had a farm,
E-i ei o
And on that farm he had some chicks,
E-i ei o
With a chick chick here and a chick chick there,
And a here chick, there chick, everywhere chick chick.
Old McDonald had a farm,
E-i ei o.

And on that farm he had some turkeys,
E-i ei o
With a gobble gobble here, and a gobble gobble there,
And a here gobble, there gobble, everywhere gobble gobble,
Chick chick here, chick chick there,
Here chick, there chick, everywhere chick chick.
Old McDonald had a farm,
E-i ei o.

And on that farm he had some ducks, E-i ei o
With a quack quack here and a quack quack there,
And a here quack, there quack, everywhere quack quack,
etc.

And on that farm he had some geese,
E-i ei o
With a honk honk here, and a honk honk there, etc.

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Here's the tune. Note that the "here a chick" part is just a bit different from what we're familiar with.

Click to play

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