Robert McGill Loughridge

Robert McGill Loughridge
Robert Loughridge
BornDecember 24, 1809
Lawrenceville, South Carolina, US
DiedJuly 8, 1900 (aged 91)
EducationMiami University, at Oxford, Ohio
OccupationMissionary

Robert McGill Loughridge (December 24, 1809 – July 8, 1900) was an American Presbyterian missionary who served among the Creek in Indian Territory. He attended Miami University, Ohio, and graduated in 1837. Loughridge was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in October 1842.

He entered Indian Territory in 1843, when he established the Koweta Mission in the Creek Nation. Seven years later, in 1850, he established the Tullahassee Mission, also in Creek territory.

Like most missionaries, he left the territory during the American Civil War, and preached in Texas for eighteen years. He returned in 1881 at the request of the foreign mission board and the Creek. During his ministry, he became skilled in the Creek language. With help from Legus Perryman, he translated and transcribed portions of the Bible into Muskogee (Creek), along with hymns and catechisms, assisted by Ann Eliza Robertson. In 1890, Loughridge published an English-Muskogee dictionary with David M. Hodge; it was the first of the Creek language and the only one for nearly a century.[1]

  1. ^ Creek Language Archive - The Bookshelf Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, The College of William and Mary. Accessed January 22, 2008. "For almost a hundred years, there was only one Creek dictionary, first published in 1890"