Versions collected by John Harrington Cox (in Folk-Songs of the South, 1925, pp. 212-214) seem to be the earliest (the dates are 1918, 1916, 1917, and 1916). Cox says: "Some stanzas of the song appear in two of Lomax's Cowboy Songs--'Root Hog or Die' (p. 254) and 'The Lone Star Trail' (p. 310)." "The Lone Star Trail" is in Lomax, Cowboy Songs, revised and enlarged ed. (1938, pp. 19-22). G. Malcolm Laws discusses variants of "Logan County Jail" in his Native American Balladry (1964; rev. ed., 1964, pp. 76-79).