I checked Spaeth, A History of Popular Music (1948). He mentions Kerrigan, In the Bright Mohawk Valley, but gives no information about it at all. Spaeth is not Fowke's source.

I checked Sandburg, The American Songbag (1927). His note says, "The popular song In the Bright Mohawk Valley went through changes in the seaboard and mountain states of the South...." There is no mention of James J. Kerrigan or of the date 1896. Sandburg is not Fowke's source.