Horatio Spafford (October 20, 1828 – October 16, 1888) was an American lawyer, Presbyterian elder, and hymn writer whose ministry emerged through personal tragedy and spiritual resilience, influencing Christian hymnody in the late 19th century. Born in Troy, New York, to Horatio Gates Spafford Sr., a government official and gazetteer author, and Elizabeth Clark Hewitt, he grew up in a family with intellectual and religious leanings. Educated informally, he trained as a lawyer in Chicago, establishing a successful practice by the 1850s, though he lacked formal theological credentials, relying instead on his deep Presbyterian faith and study of Scripture. Spafford’s preaching career was not conventional pulpit ministry but took shape through his leadership in Chicago’s Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church and his hymn "It Is Well with My Soul," penned in 1873 after losing four daughters—Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta—in the S.S. Ville du Havre shipwreck. His “sermons” emerged in this hymn, written while crossing the Atlantic to join his surviving wife, Anna, reflecting trust in God amid sorrow, and later through his communal leadership after founding the American Colony in Jerusalem in 1881 with Anna and a small group dubbed “The Overcomers.” There, he preached a practical gospel of service to the poor, though his unorthodox beliefs—like denying eternal punishment—drew criticism. Married to Anna Larsen in 1861, with whom he had six children—two surviving, Bertha and Grace—he passed away at age 59 in Jerusalem.