Guest Cats- What magazine? Author and supporting data (is the article reliable?).
This is a hard one on which to verify source and age. Most sources say 'Appalachian', but no evidence is cited. Patterson's "Shaker Spiritual" is a well-researched study of Shaker song, not a psalmody.
Like Erick, I would like reliable evidence of the song before the 1920's.

I agree that "Watch the Stars" is a different song, but it is commonly associated in a medley, hence bears mention here. If it was collected by Balanta-Taylor, as Simpson avers, its occurrence as an African-American spiritual is proven; but so far I have been unable to verify Simpson's assertion.