I've never heard of "Lost Jimmy Whelan" before (seems to be from 1926), but the tune in Lloyd is "The Banks of the Devon", first made into a hit by Burns in the 1780s and used by topical ballad writers in Scotland and elsewhere ever since. I have one in my "Embro, Embro" pages about the prisoner of war camp in Midlothian in 1811 - the basic verbal patterns are the same as in the later songs. There's no need to look for an obscure North American song as the model.