Spafford’s daughter Bertha Spafford Vester wrote a book called Our Jerusalem: An American Family in the Holy City, 1881–1949, which, unsurprisingly, concludes this about the “absurd claims” about her father: “Some reports were vicious, others harmful, all untrue” (59).

Of course, Kenneth Osbeck’s 101 Hymn Stories glosses over all this.

I’m curious enough about this that I think I’ll skim through Vester’s book and maybe read this biography of Anna Spafford.