Another place that has hymn stories is Reporterinteractive They do a weekly History of Hymns column that you can find under the reviews tag. The site is being reworked & right now you have to do a search on History of Hymns to find the old ones in their files. The site administration assured me that once they finish reconfiguring the History of hymn archive will be back.

My friend, who had examined copies of all Sacred Harp editions, says Jackson apparently made a mistake when he said it was in the 1st ed. He said, "Jackson clearly made a mistake, which I think he may have acknowledged later." The 20th century dates I gave above are accurate for the Sacred Harp versions.

Here's a citation for an article with more information. Many libraries have it, but not mine. I'll get a copy through ILL & summarize it when I can.

AUTHOR(S): GARST, JOHN F. TITLE: Poor Wayfaring Stranger: early publications. JOURNAL NAME: THE HYMN VOLUME: 31 DATE: 1980 PAGE(S)/ISSUE: 97-101 n2