Blackburn Times 21st December 1922

THE LATE REUBEN SANKEY

The death of Mr Reuben Sankey, of Abbey Village, near Chorley, removes one of the best known figures in Methodism in mid-Lancashire. Few men have given their lives so devotedly to the cause as did this grand old man, and to have laboured at one church for seventy years is surely a record, more especially when fifty out of those seventy have been spent in the position of superintendent of the Sunday School.

Under very peculiar circumstances, Reuben Sankey came to Abbey Village as a lad in his teens, and at once connected himself to with the little band of United Methodists. He had tramped all the way from Preston, driven away from his native town in search of bread by the cotton panic. He was but a humble mill lad, but he had his heart for Christian work, and when he set out on his lonely travel, he took with him a reference Bible - a memento of the Sunday School he had attended. The Bible constituted all his worldly possessions. When at last he reached Abbey village, footsore and hungry, he made his usual request for work, and was successful in securing a job at the spinning-room.

From that time onward , he laboured at a task in the Sunday School which will bear fruit for long years to come. First as a teacher, then superintendent, he at length became the father of the local United Methodist Chapel, and put into his work such enthusiasm that the little flock of scholars gradually grew, and more commodious premises had to be erected. "Reuben Sankey" came to be a household word in that little community.

It is only a short time ago since old age - he was 87- compelled him to remain at home, and when the end came peacefully last week, the whole village felt it had lost its friend and guide. Not a house was there which had not its blind drawn, and Reuben Sankey was carried to his grave with great manifestations of sorrow, by the men women and children whose lives he had enriched.

United Methodist weekly journal 28 Dec 1922

Mr. Reuben Sankey, Withnell.

By  the death of Mr. Reuben  Sankey, at the age of  86 years, the Chorley Circuit has lost a veteran standard-bearer who was regarded with pride and affection.  During the cotton famine in the middle of last century,  Mr. Sankey, then a youth, took to the road in search  of employment, with a Bible in his pocket.  Finding  work at the village of Withnell,  high  up on the moors  midway between Bolton and Preston, he remained there  to become spinning-master of the village factory, president of the local co-operative society for a generation, class leader for thirty years, and Sunday School superintendent for over half a century.  A man of quiet persistent disposition, whatever he did  he did well. He had a strong love for the house of God, and until illness prevented him, was rarely absent from  its services. Day by day he read the Bible, his lifelong guide and companion. The missionary cause was dear  to him, and he had a great delight in following the  doings of our missionaries, several of whom he had personally known; for many years he presided at the annual  missionary meeting. Though with the years sorrow and pain came to him, his interest continued unabated.  Mr. Sankey passed away in his sleep in the early morning of Saturday, December 9th, and was buried at  Withnell Parish Church. A large company, representing many sections of the community, attended the funeral services, which were conducted by Rev. D.  Irving, M.A., .D.C.L., Rev. J. H. Baron, and Rev. J.  Smallwood. A daughter and three sons, all actively connected with our Withnell Church, mourn a father's loss.