In his book "Foot Loose in the West" (1932), the prolific writer (and adventurer) Charles J. Finger (1869-1941) mentions a song he'd heard while living in southwest Texas around 1899. The tune, he writes, was "curiously compounded of 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Jock the Jolly Ploughboy." It was, Finger notes, "once very popular in the days when one could ride from San Antonio to Douglas, Arizona, without having to dismount to open gate."

                      OLD NEW MEXICO

“I found myself in Griffin in the spring of ’83
When a noted cow-driver one day came up to me.
Says: ‘How d’ye do, young fellow, and how’d you like to go
And spend the summer pleasantly out in New Mexico?’

“I being out of employment to the driver I did say,
‘Me going out to Mexico depends upon the pay;
But if you pay good wages and transportation to and fro
I guess I’ll go along of you to old New Mexico.’

“Of course I pay good wages, and transportation too,
Provided that you stay with me the whole long summer through,
And if e’er you get all homesick and want to Griffin go
I’ll even lend a horse to go from old New Mexico.’

“With all this flattering talk the man enlisted quite a few,
Some ten or twelve in number, and clever fellows too.
Our trip was right smart pleasant and we were glad to go.
Until we reached old Boggy Creek out in New Mexico.

“Right there our pleasure ended, and troubles soon began.
The first hail storm that hit us sent the cattle on the run.
In riding through the cactus we had but little show,
And Indians watched to shoot us on the hills of Mexico.

“The summer season ended, the driver could not pay.
The outfit cost so heavy, he was in debt, I’ll lay.
We saw the game was bankrupt, and knew we wouldn’t go
To leave our bones to whiten there in old New Mexico.

“So now we’ll cross old Boggy Creek, and homeward we are bound,
No more in this tough country we’ll evermore be found.
We’re going to wives and sweethearts to tell them not to go
To that god-forsaken country they call New Mexico.”

A few other texts are worth giving: none were accompanied by tunes.

'Catters will recognize Woody Guthrie's use of "Griffin" in his version of "The Buffalo Skinners," this song's immediate progenitor.