Ira David Sankey

Ira David Sankey was born in Edinburg, Pennsylvania, on August 28, 1840, into a Methodist family. After moving to New Castle, Pennsylvania, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and became active as a Sunday school superintendent, choir leader, and singer. He also served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and later worked in government service before meeting evangelist Dwight L. Moody at a YMCA convention in Indianapolis in 1870.

Sankey joined Moody in evangelistic work and became one of the best-known gospel singers of the nineteenth century. Their campaigns in Britain and the United States helped establish the solo gospel song as a prominent feature of revival meetings. Sankey compiled and edited influential collections, including Sacred Songs and Solos, and supplied melodies for a number of texts by other writers.

For “Under His Wings,” Sankey composed the melody specifically for William Orcutt Cushing’s text, and the song appeared as number 5 in Sacred Songs No. 1 in 1896. The tune was originally unnamed; the title HINGHAM was assigned much later, in 1978, after Cushing’s Massachusetts birthplace. Sankey died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 13, 1908.