This (in the Levy collection) seems to be the earliest. Unfortunately the links to page images are inactive.

Title: Round her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who is Fur Fur Away).
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words and Music by George A. Norton.
Publication: New York: Leo Feist, Inc., 1917.
Instrumentation: piano and voice
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
First Line: Susie Simpkins in the village papers read about the soldiers manly capers
First Line of Chorus: 'Round her neck she wears a yeller ribbon
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: E. Pfeiffer N.Y.
Advertisement: ads on back cover for Leo Feist stock
Subject: Farms
Subject: Cattle
Subject: Dwellings
Subject: Meadows
Subject: Dialects
Subject: Absences
Subject: Spouses
Subject: Soldiers
Subject: Correspondence
Call No.: Box: 154 Item: 099

The sheet music (facsimile) is in David A. Jasen, For Me and My Gal and Other Favorite Song Hits, 1915-1917 (Dover, 1994, pp. 104-106), so I'll post the lyrics later if no one does.

~Masato