My comments won't help you find the origin of the song, but they are a wonderful story of how this song has touched my family's life.
My sister and I learned this song our first year at Camp Glen Arden in North Carolina in the late 70's. As soon as our parents picked us up at the airport we sang this song for them both. It was so beautiful! (Incidently, reading the posted verses above makes me giggle to think how off we were on our own version). Through the years, my sister and I sang the song at family events and special occasions, or whenever my parents just wanted us to stop fighting and harmonize.
This past March, my father was hospitalized in the end stages of a valliant battle with lung and brain cancer. My sister and I were at his bedside in his final moments, and as we waited for my mom to arrive, we sang "Barges" for him one last time. It was the most beautiful moment in my life. We didn't even have to think about it..we just started singing together as if on cue.
My own child will attend Glen Arden this summer, and my mother found this site for me tonight - to remind me to continue the tradition of the song. "Barges"..no matter where it originated, no matter who the composer or writer - is indelible to our family.