Little more freckle-faced consumptive research:

The song was written before 1882, titled "Sarah Jane," as a parody of J. H. Peabody's 1869 "Scotch Lassie Jean," per Gus Meade's indispensable "Country Music Sources, Univ. of North Carolina, 2002.

The first recording was actually by Ernest V. Stoneman:

"Freckled Faced Mary Jane," OKeh 40312, NYC, April 1925.

And a lot of the old time musicians recorded it including Bob Cranford and A.P. Thompson, and it was recorded as "The Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World" by Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader, whose version is quite a bit nearer the original than Charlie Poole's.

Bob