Surely the original "Creole Belles" was an instrumental piano ragtime piece, that's the only way that I have heard it.
If my memory is correct it contains three or is it four strains? (sorry I'm not knowledgeable on musical theory) and it is only one of these strains -the third I think- which MJH uses for his song "My Creole Belle". This is the same tune used as a melody for a skip rope song which became "Rubber Dolly", "Rubber Dolly Rag" as an instrumental and then "Back Up And Push" usually a bluegrass treatment of the same part. I am sure there are other songs too which utilise this part of "Creole Belles" for a melody.

Just a minor point on Libba Cotten and Merle Travis picking styles, Travis seemd only to use thumb and one finger and sometimes dampened the strings with the heel of his picking hand. Doc Watson demonstrates the dampening when explaining how he took the Delmore Brothers song and combined it with Travis picking to produce "Deep River Blues"

Hoot