Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York - October 16, 1888, Jerusalem)[1] was a prominent American lawyer, best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul, following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died.
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On September 5, 1861, in Chicago, Spafford married Anna Larsen, of Stavanger, Norway. The Spaffords were well-known in 1860's Chicago. Horatio was a prominent lawyer[2] and he and his wife were also prominent supporters and close friends of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Spafford had invested heavily in the city's real estate; the Great Chicago Fire which swept through the city in 1871 destroyed almost everything Spafford owned.
The Spaffords' only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four.
Two years later, in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday somewhere in Europe, and chose England knowing that his friend D. L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. He was delayed because of business, so he sent his family ahead: his wife and their four children, daughters eleven year old Anna “Annie”, nine year old Margaret Lee, five year old Elizabeth “Bessie”, and two year old Tanetta.
On November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Ville du Havre, their ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel[3] and two hundred and twenty-six people lost their lives, including all four of Spafford's daughters. Anna Spafford survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Spafford beginning "Saved alone."[4] Spafford then sailed to England, going over the location of his daughters' deaths. According to Bertha Spafford Vester, a daughter born after the tragedy, Spafford wrote "It Is Well With My Soul" on this journey.
The original manuscript[5] has only four verses, but Spafford's daughter states how later another verse (the fourth in order below) was added and the last line of the original was slightly modified.[6] The music, written by Philip Bliss, was named after the ship on which Spafford's daughters died, Ville du Havre.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)
And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain)
Following the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Anna gave birth to three more children. On February 11, 1880, their only son, Horatio Goertner Spafford, died at the age of four years, of pneumonia. Their daughters were Bertha Hedges Spafford (born March 24, 1878) and Grace Spafford (born January 18, 1881). In August 1881, the Spaffords set out for Jerusalem as a party of thirteen adults and three children and set up the American Colony. Colony members, later joined by Swedish Christians, engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation and without proselytizing motives--thereby gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. During and immediately after World War I, the American Colony played a critical role in supporting these communities through the great suffering and deprivations of the eastern front by running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures.[7]
Spafford died on October 16, 1888, of malaria, and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem.
