Here's an 1893 glimpse, from the Barton County Democrat (Great Bend, Kans.) (Sept. 28, 1893), p.3:

"...and the katydid disputed with the wife of its bosom, and the wood tick whetted his tushes on the trees, and the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around."

"Tush" = an old rural form of "tusk." Not what you're thinking.

And this, in the Bridgeport (Conn.) Standard (May 16, 1873), p. 4: "A horror-stricken state of boiled-down nothingness still reigns supreme in this community. Green peas are selling for forty cents a quart, and the green grass grows all around."