Coachbuilder’s Column: Volume 14: Issue 11: 27th December, 2024: Horatio Stafford and ‘It Is Well With My Soul’

In late 1878, Horatio Gates Stafford [1828-1888], an American lawyer and Presbyterian Church elder,  farewelled his wife, Anna, and four young daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Janetta, as they prepared to sale from the USA to Europe to attend an evangelical convention in Europe and enjoy a family vacation in England – the family  went ahead of Horatio who remained behind to complete some business, planning to join his family in Europe.  Spafford had earlier 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.

On the 22^nd November, 1878, the family’s ship – the S.S. Ville De Havre – sunk, after a collision at sea with an iron merchant sailing ship, with the loss of 226 passengers and crew.  Stafford would later receive a telegram from his wife, having arrived in Wales after rescue in the Atlantic Ocean, which simply stated  –  “Saved, alone…”   Those lost, included their four daughters.

While all four of Horatio Spafford’s daughters perished, remarkably Anna Spafford survived the tragedy. Those rescued, including Anna, who was found unconscious, floating on a plank of wood, subsequently arrived in Cardiff, South Wales. Upon arrival there, Anna immediately sent a telegram to her husband, which included the words “Saved alone….”

Shortly afterwards, as Spafford travelled to meet his grieving wife, and at one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred. At that point, Horatio was inspired to write what became a Hymn, with the words “It is Well With My Soul” as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

Horatio’s faith in God never faltered. He later wrote to Anna’s half-sister, “On Thursday last, we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe….. dear lambs”.  After Anna was rescued, Pastor Nathaniel Weiss, one of the ministers travelling with the surviving group, remembered hearing Anna say, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.”

Horatio and Anne would have three more children after that tragedy, of which the eldest, a son, died of scarlet fever, aged 4 years [with I believe another son having died at the same age previously in the States].

The tune of the hymn was written by Philip Bliss, and was named after the ship on which Spafford’s daughters died, Ville du Havre, and included five verses and a Refrain.  Apparently, the original manuscriptonly had four verses, but one of Spafford’s subsequent daughters, Bertha Spafford Vester (author of Our Jerusalem: An American Family in the Holy City 1881-1949), said a verse was later added and the last line of the original song was modified.

[the reference to Jerusalem arises from the fact that in August 1881, the Spaffords settled in Jerusalem as part of a group of 13 adults and three children, establishing the ‘American Colony’ whose membership would include Swedish Christians, engaged in philanthropic work among the people of Jerusalem regardless of religious affiliation, gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. What a pity that modern history doesn’t see that kind of trust amongst those religions. Sadly, not all aspects of that colony were quite what most of us today would be favour of – according to a Wikipedia report, membership in the colony required both single and married adherents to declare celibacy, and children were separated from their parents, while child labour was used in various business endeavours while in Jerusalem. Despite that, at the Eastern Front  during and after World War I,  and during the Armenian and Assyrian  genocides, the American Colony supported the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities of Jerusalem by hosting soup kitchens , hospitals, and orphanages].  

Irrespective of those later developments, I was inspired by that heartrending story of the shipping disaster, and the subsequent words Horatio Stafford composed on that tragic journey to rejoin his wife. I’m unsure as to which Christian denominations might have taken up with the Hymn, as part of their worship repertoire,  certainly, the composer, Bliss,  wrote a number of other hymns which are included in the current hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I imagine Ville du Havre is also included. The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performed a Mack Wilberg arrangement on one occasion.

The full hymn appears below

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 the 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)