Roud Number 642, has 69 entries. Several from Michigan collections (Songs of the Michigan Lumberjacks, Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan), but versions from Texas, Wisconsin, N.Dakota, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Canada.

Some accessible versions are in Sandburg American Songbag (Flat River Girl), Lomax Cowboy Songs (Love-sick Cowboy), Doerflinger Songs of the Sailor & Lumberman (Jack Haggerty), Brown NC Folklore 2 (Jack Haggerty) and Friedmann Penguin Book of Folk Ballads (Jack Haggerty).

The earliest with a date collected seems to be from 1881, Jack Hagade in Gardner & Chickering, Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan (1939) pp.267-269 (version c).

Mick