Sale, John

Sale, John, a Methodist Episcopal minister, and "one of the most heroic evangelists and founders of Western Methodism," was born in Virginia in 1769. In 1796 he joined the itinerancy, and was sent to Swanino Circuit, "in the wilds of Virginia, where he had his courage and fidelity tested in breasting the dangers and hardships of a pioneer preacher." His next circuit was the Mattamuskeet, Va.; in 1799 he went to Holston Circuit; in 1803, to the northwestern territory of Virginia, where, for nearly a quarter of a century, he alternated between Ohio and Kentucky, a successful circuit preacher and a commanding presiding elder. He died Jan. 15, 1827, exclaiming, "My last battle is fought, and the victory sure! hallelujah!" Mr. Sale was an eminently useful man, and he adorned every relation that he sustained to the Church. See Minutes of Conferences, 1, 572; Stevens, Hist. of the M.E. Church, 4, 106, 148, 149, 338, 431; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 7; Finley, Sketches, p. 185, 186; Bangs, Hist. of the M.E. Church, 2, 111. (J.L.S.)