John Ashworth, preacher, manufacturer and author, was born 8 July, 1813 at the hamlet of Cutgate near Rochdale, England. The eighth child of poor wool weavers, Ashworth had no more education than what could be gleaned at a Sunday school. John married his first wife at the age of 21 and they both struggled with poverty and care. In 1851, while visiting London’s House for the Destitute, Ashworth resolved to open the Chapel for the Destitute in Rochdale. As a minister of this chapel, he was brought into close contact with the poorest people in this factory town. Ashworth was a vigorous preacher of Orthodox Christianity and spoke in an ordinary understandable language. He was intimately acquainted with the people’s way of life and attracted a great congregation. Ashworth’s true narratives – he called “Strange Tales” –have no literary polish, but are unique examples of a man’s straightforward approach to leading the lost and unsaved to Jesus Christ. The intimate knowledge of the class he describes gives his literary work a value to which most religious tracts have no claim. John Ashworth died on 26 January, 1875, and was followed to his grave by a procession of those among whom he had labored.