The traditional ENglish version -- clearly the parent to this one -- as sung by (IIRC)Dyer Bennett, has the verse as follows:
"She yelled for help, screamed for help, Loudly did she bawl; But the old man said, now I'm so darned blind, I can't see you at all...".
In the Tennesee version, it would make sense for the questioned line to be "I loved you best of all...", given the context and the cliches of the period.