Born: Oc­to­ber 20, 1828, North Troy, New York.

Died: Oc­to­ber 16, 1888, Je­ru­sa­lem, Is­ra­el, of ma­la­ria.

Buried: Je­ru­sa­lem, Is­ra­el.

Spafford and his wife had a con­sis­tent his­to­ry of act­ing on their faith. Af­ter the great Chi­ca­go fire of 1871, they de­vot­ed count­less hours to help­ing the sur­viv­ors. In 1881, they moved to Jeru­sa­lem (tak­ing two daugh­ters born af­ter the ship­wreck tra­ge­dy) and helped found a group called the Amer­i­can Col­o­ny; its mis­sion was to serve the poor. The col­o­ny lat­er be­came the sub­ject of the No­bel prize win­ning Je­ru­sa­lem, by Swed­ish nov­el­ist Sel­ma La­ger­löf.

Sources

Hymns

  1. It Is Well with My Soul