LOUGHRIDGE, loch'ridj', Robert Mc Gill, American Presbyterian clergyman, mis sionary and lexicographer: b. Laurensville, S. C., 24 Dec. 1809; d. Waco, Tex., 8 July 1900. His father, James Loughridge, was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and his mother, Deborah Ann (McGill) Loughridge, was a native of South Carolina and of Scotch Irish extraction. His parents removed to Eu taw, Ala., in his early youth. Robert M. Lough ridge was educated at Miami University, gradu ating in 1837. He then entered Princeton Theological Seminary, but remained only one year, the death of his father necessitating his return home to aid his mother in the manage ment of the family's affairs. He continued to pursue his theological studies under the direc tion of his pastor, Rev. Dr. John H. Gray. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Tuscaloosa, in 1841. In October 1842 he was ordained by the same Presbytery being under appointment of the Presbyterian Mission Board as a missionary to the Creek Indians. He went to the Creek Nation only five years after the people of that tribe had expelled all mis sionaries. When he presented himself before
the Creek Council and asked permission to take up his work it was granted with great reluct ance and he began the organization of the mis sion at Coweta, in February 1843, where a school was established. Six years later, his work had so prospered that the Creek Nation founded a manual labor school at Tullahassee, of which he was made superintendent, and where he continued to labor until the work of the mission was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. Mr. Loughridge then moved to Texas, where he engaged in pastoral work until 1880, when he returned to the Creek Nation to accept the superintendency of the new manual labor school at Wealaka, in which capacity he continued to labor until his final retirement in 1892, after having reached the age of 82. He mastered the Creek or Muskogee language, translating the catechism, portions of the Bible and many hymns into that tongue and also compiling a Creek-English dictionary, which, however, was not printed until after his death.