Stephen C. Foster’s “Jenny’s Coming o’er the Green” was first published in Clark’s School Visitor in July 1860. It was subsequently entered into copyright on July 21, 1860, and published by Lee & Walker as a songsheet.

Foster’s friend John Mahon wrote about the song in “The Last Years of Stephen C. Foster,” which appeared in the New York Clipper on March 24, 1877. He wrote, 

The history of “Jennie’s Coming O’er the Green” he [Stephen] also told me. It was somewhat funny. It appears that he admired a young girl named Jennie (platonic, of course), and promised to write a song for her. He did so, and began it thus:

Little Jennie’s seventeen;
Fairer form was never seen,
Life and grace are in her mien.
Why do I love her so? 

But Mrs. Foster did not like such a pointed allusion to the young lady’s age, so he changed the first line to  “Jennie’s coming o’er the green.”