Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York – September 25, 1888, Jerusalem) was a prominent American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder. He is best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul following the death of his four-year-old son and the Great Chicago Fire along with a family tragedy in which his four daughters died aboard the S.S. Ville du Havre on a transatlantic voyage.

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