Hi - the information in the Traditional Ballad Index (click) on this song isn't satisfying, but it's a start. I'm not sure about that date, 1924, that they have listed - I think it's the earliest date they found it in print.
Here's what I found in Sam Henry's Songs of the People:The Lakes of Ponchartrain
[H619: 12 Oct 1935; Laws H9]
Source: Paddy M'Closkey (Carnamenagh, Corkey, County Antrim), learned from Frank M'Allister (Carnagall, Corkey) c. 1905, learned when a woodsman in America.
This is a very interesting song...Ponchartrain Lakes are five miles north of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana. These lakes are a constant menace to New Orleans, their waters having to be kept away by great earthen dykes. The land there is so waterlogged that no cellar can be built and all tombs are above-ground erections.
A Creole is a native of Louisiana of French extraction.
-Joe Offer-
Lake of Ponchartrain, The [Laws H9]
DESCRIPTION: A young man (Union soldier?), lost in the south, is taken in by a Creole girl. He asks her to marry; she cannot, for she is promised to another who is far away (at sea?). He promises to remember her always
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting separation promise
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Ont,West)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws H9, "The Lake of Ponchartrain"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 147-148, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 48-49, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 882, "The Ponsaw Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 46-48, "On the Lake of the Poncho Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 134, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 55, pp. 127-128, "The Creole Girl" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 45, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 67, pp. 90-91, "The Creole GIrl" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 137, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 78, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H619, pp. 373-374, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 342, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text)
DT 649, PONTCHAR PONCHAR2 PONCHAR3 PONCHAR4
Roud #1836
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Ann Bartley, "Lakes of Ponchartraine" (on Saskatch01)
Walter Coon, "Creole Girls" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Frances Perry, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (Supertone 9717, 1930) (Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Art Thieme, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (on Thieme05)
Mrs. William Towns, "Lakes of Ponsereetain" (on ONEFowke01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lakes of the Ponchartrain
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