John, check out this recent (Jan., 2020) article, by Eric Sinclair:

https://sixstrstories.com/2020/01/19/the-ballad-of-wayfaring-stranger/

According to the research of John Garst, the first joint appearance of the familiar words and (essentially) music was in the early 1890s.

A really "transitional" version is the one recorded by Vaughn's Texas Quartet in 1929. It's at the linked site.

So far, it looks like the now standard version was introduced by Burl Ives.