Ira D. Sankey
Mahoning Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Famous singing evangelist, fellow-worker with Dwight L. Moody in Europe and in America, was born Aug. 28, 1840, at Edinburg, in a house since removed. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on Aug. 13, 1908.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born at Edinburg in 1840, Ira D. Sankey became the most celebrated gospel singer of his age, the musical partner of the great revivalist Dwight L. Moody. Together they carried mass evangelism across the United States and the British Isles, with Sankey's warm baritone and pump organ turning revival meetings into events that drew enormous crowds. His hymn collections sold in the millions and helped define the sound of Gilded Age Protestant worship before his death in Brooklyn in 1908.
Why it matters
Sankey helped invent modern gospel music and mass revivalism, shaping how American Christianity sang and gathered in the late nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · Ira D. Sankey
- · Dwight L. Moody
Themes & tags
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