This seems to be a precursor to Sam Cowell’s BACON AND GREENS. It was printed as a poem in a newspaper.

Please note that this version consists of 6 verses of 4 lines each, plus a postscript of one more verse, unlike the sheet music, which is arranged as 3 verses of 8 lines each, and omits the postscript. Also, there is a one-line refrain. Other than that, differences are minor, but I have boldfaced them.

From The Southern Argus, Columbus, Miss., Vol 5 No 43, July 9, 1839, which you can see at the Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America” archive:

From the Southron.

BACON AND GREENS.

BY GREEN PEASE BACON, ESQ. G. B.

I have lived long enough to be rarely mistaken,
  And borne my full share of life’s changeable scenes,
But my woes have been solaced by good greens and bacon,
  And my joys have been doubled by bacon and greens.
    Fol de ri do—bacon and greens.

What a thrill of remembrance e’en now they awaken,
  Of childhood’s gay morning and youth’s merry scenes,
When one day we had greens and a plate full of bacon,
  And the next we had bacon and a plate full of greens.

Ah! well I remember when, sad and forsaken,
  Heart-wrung by the scorn of a Miss in her teens,
How I rushed from her sight to my loved greens and bacon,
  And forgot my despair over bacon and greens.

When the banks refused specie, and credit was shaken,
  I shared in the wreck and was ruined in means;
My friends all declared I had not ‘saved my bacon,’
  But they lied—for I still had my bacon and greens.

Oh! there is a charm in this dish, rightly taken,
  That from custards and jellies an epicure weans—
Stick your fork in the fat, wrap your greens round the bacon,
  And you’ll vow there is nothing like bacon and greens.

If some fairy a grant of three wishes would make one
  So worthless as I, and so laden with sins,
I’d wish all the greens in the world, then the bacon,
  And then wish for a little more bacon and greens.
    Fol de ri do—bacon and greens.

POSTSCRIPT.

I return to confess that for once I’m mistaken,
  As much as I’ve known of this world and its scenes;
There’s one thing that’s equal to both greens and bacon,
  And that is a dish of good—bacon and greens.
    Fol de ri do—bacon and greens.

Greensboro’, Green County.

- - -
The lyrics also appear in Memorial Record of Alabama, Vol 2, (Madison, Wis.: Brant & Fuller, 1893), page 173, in Chapter 10 “Alabama Journalism” by W. W. Screws, where it says:

‘Bakus W. Huntington wrote “Bacon and Greens," which was published in the Southron and subsequently went the rounds of the newspaper press. It is worthy of a place here.’

Then follows the text.

Some other publications confirm this attribution—sort of.

An article titled ‘Joseph G. Baldwin and the “Flush Times” ’ by George Frederick Mellen, in The Sewanee Review, Vol 9 No 2 (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., April, 1901), mention, on page 177:

‘Judge Bacchus W. Huntington, the scholarly New Englander, the proficient and successful lawyer, the bright wit and author of a poem, “Bacon and Greens,”….’

The Smiling Phoenix: Southern Humor from 1865 to 1914, by Wade H. Hall (University of Florida Press, 1965), page 345, says:

A favorite Southern dish is the subject of William R. Smith's "Bacon and Greens,” published in Reminiscences of a Long Life under the pseudonym Bakus W. Huntington.

Early Alabama Publications: A Study in Literary Interests by Rhoda Coleman Ellison (University of Alabama Press, 1947), page 112:

‘ “Bacon and Greens,” by “Green Pease Bacon, Esq.” (Bakus W. Huntington, a Tuscaloosa lawyer), who gives his address as “Greensboro, Green County,” is a rollicking tribute to the traditional Alabama dish of turnip greens or collards …’