The song was first recorded in 1934 by a preacher named "Sin-Killer" Griffin for the Library of Congress, in a session conducted by folk song collector John A. Lomax at Darrington State Farm (now the Darrington Unit), a prison near Sandy Point, Texas. The prison inmates served as Griffin's congregation, and Griffin claimed authorship of the song. Since this is the first known appearance of the song, it is not clear whether the song dates to the very famous 1900 Galveston hurricane, which (as of 2014) remains the deadliest natural disaster in United States history, responsible for an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 fatalities. Although as popularized in the 1960s, the song itself references the year 1900 and the lyrics state "Now Galveston had no seawall"—which was built after the flood—some listeners have heard this line as "Now Galveston had a seawall" which in 1900 it did not, the main reason for the extensive death toll. This may be a clue that the song lyrics were written or at least standardized after the 1915 Galveston hurricane by which time a seawall had been built.