From Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky by Jean Thomas (New York, Oak Publications [1964]), page 168f:

... Now there was Roger Williams, the young evangelist who set out to preach the Gospel in the lonely mountains when first the Cumberlands were being settled. Roger proudly boasted kinship with Roger Williams of Rhode Island, and while some listened with tongue in cheek, or took it with a grain of salt, others believed firmly that the young preacher was all he claimed to be. They listened to many of his tales, too, of the fair lady to whom he was "promised" back in New England. As the winters grew more severe Roger concluded it was best for his loved one never to join him in the wilderness and he sent a messenger to her with his letter of farewell. But whether the Indians slew the bearer of the letter or whether he died of exposure in the snow-covered mountains, no one knew. At any rate the fair lady not hearing from the young evangelist set out from her home in New England to join him in the Cumberlands. But ere she reached her lover's side, Roger had perished from cold and hunger in his solitary hut in a deep ravine. To this day his kin relate the story and sing the young evangelist's letter of farewell in this wise:

My own dear love I write to you,
Religion's scarce and preachers few;
I trust in God and daily pray
In the lonely mountains far away.

When I was on the ice and snow,
It hailed....

[I think there is more of the song in this book, but I was unable to extract it.—JD]