Horatio Spafford

Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York – September 25, 1888, Jerusalem) was an American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder. He is best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul following the Great Chicago Fire and the death of his four daughters on a transatlantic voyage aboard the S.S. Ville du Havre. Biography Spafford was the son of Gazetteer author Horatio Gates Spafford and Elizabeth Clark Hewitt Spafford. On September 5, 1861, Spafford married Anna Larsen of Stavanger, Norway, in Chicago. Spafford was a lawyer and a senior partner in a large law firm. The Spaffords were supporters and friends of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Spafford invested in real estate north of Chicago in the spring of 1871. However, in October 1871, the Great Fire of Chicago reduced the city to ashes, destroying most of Spafford's investment.