Ira D. Sankey

SANKEY, Ira David. b. Edinburgh, near New Castle, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1840; d. Brooklyn, New York 14 August 1908. He was one of eleven children born of the marriage of devout Methodists David and Mary (née Leeper) Sankey. The family settled a few miles east in Western Reserve Harbour and attended the nearby Methodist Church in King’s Chapel where Sankey at age 16 was ‘converted’. Sankey learned to sing hymns in Sunday school and in the family hymn sings. ‘By the time he was eight . . . he knew by heart the parts of several melodies, such as ST. MARTIN’S, BELMONT, and CORONATION’ (McNeil, p. 329). In 1857 his father became president of a local bank and moved the family to New Castle...