The Carter's 1903 "Lover's Farewell" is based on the earlier song "We Have Met and We Have Parted" which is dated by Meade as circa 1870s. Several versions of "We Have Met and We Have Parted" were collected in the early 1930s (Melinger Henry; JOAFL) and the two recordings unfortunately (one in 1928) were never issued.

All the variants are based on "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another"
or "Farewell, farewell, Forever" by Charles Slade published in 1849.
Here's a link:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mussm&fileName=sm2/sm1849/451000/451430/mussm451430.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?mussm:6:.

The song was popular and there were numerous broadsides and ballets printed as well as other printed versions. If anyone has "We Have Met and We Have Parted" versions it would be good to post one for comparison.

LOVER'S FAREWELL-Carter Family 1930

We have met and we have parted
We have spoke our last goodbye
You have proved to me false hearted
You may now forever go

You have wrecked the heart I've cherished
You have done me day by day
You are false but I'll forgive you
To forget you I cannot say

For I love you dear I love you
More than all this world I know
You have proved to me false-hearted
You may now forever go

On the river bank I'll loiter
Till I see your face once more
Then I'll plunge beneath the water
And I'll land on some far shore

Among the trees and bushes
Where the dark green willow sway
In the cold and silent rushes
There you'll find my lonely grave

O I wish I was white marble
Cold and white on some far shore
This poor heart would cease from troubling
And I'd feel the pain no more