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Some sources cite the music as coming from the 1835 edition of Southern Harmony, while others cite the 1840 edition. Since both editions are available on the internet as scanned PDFs, I searched, and was only able to find it in the 1840 edition.
The original folk melody is in Dorian mode, but I was unable to find a version with harmonies that didn't sound too hap-hazard or incomplete (like the version printed in Southern Harmony) or that drifted into natural minor (Aeolian mode) or into major, as in most current hymnals. So I worked on creating my own version that felt like it stayed more in Dorian mode and (hopefully) less hap-hazard. The G sharps in this version momentarily shift the piece into Dorian #4, the fourth mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale.
