"Wichita Daily Eagle," Apr. 23, 1890:

"A piece of poetry has appeared at Stillwater entitled 'We shall never see our cabins any more, by the author of 'Last Night as I lay on the Prairie.'

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"New York Herald," Apr. 24, 1892:

"Queer Things Found in the Dead Letter Office...

"An interesting Western effort was recently received:--

   To-night I lay out on the prairie,
    And look at that bright sky;
   I wonder if ever a cowboy
    Would drift to that sweet by-and-by."

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"The Daily New Mexican" (Santa Fe), March 4, 1894:

"The following pretty little bit of genre was written by Mr. John L. Zimmerman, and set to music by Mr. Fred W. Joyce, both formerly of Las Vegas and Roswell, and is dedicated to the Hon. Ernest Meyers, representative of Bernalillo county in the last legislature:

                     THE COWBOY'S HYMN.
                (Copyrighted by the Author.)

Last night as I lay on the prairie
   Looking up at the stars in the sky,
I wondered if ever a cowboy
   Would go there in the sweet by and by.

The trail to that dim, mystic region
   Is both narrow and dim, they say,
But the broad one that leads to perdition
   Is posted and blazed all the way.

I wondered whose fault that so many
   Were lost at the great final sale,
When they might have been rich and had plenty
   Had they known of this dim narrow trail.

I have heard there will be a great round-up,
   When the cowboy, with others, will stand,
To be cut by the rider of judgment,
   Who is posted and knows every brand.

Then perhaps there may be a young cowboy,
   Unbranded, unclaimed, and denied,
To be mavericked by the rider of judgment
   And shipped to the sweet by and by.

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Lomax & Lomax, Cowboy Songs (1938):

“The song was a favorite of the Texas evangelist, Rev. Abe Mulkey, when urging the cowboys to ‘come up to the mourners’ bench’ at the frontier camp meetings.

"I.P. Skinner, of Athens, Texas, surmises: ‘Charley Hart, of Carollton, Miss., was under the necessity of living (incognito) on the Black Ranch in Clay County, Texas, soon after the war. He found surcease of sorrow in writing, and composed this song, I think in 1873, with the title, ‘Drift to That Sweet By-and-By.’”