Cephas Washburn

Dwight Mission was founded as a school for the Cherokees under the leadership of Rev. Cephas Washburn in 1818. Originating near present Russellville, Arkansas, the mission was moved to this location in 1828. For four decades Rev. Washburn inspired missionaries to dedicate their lives to Indian education and provided Cherokee youths with an incentive to learn and to achieve. Born in a well-to-do New England family, Rev. Washburn foresook an aristocratic life to come to a frontier country to live among a people who had been banished from their homes and whose language he did not understand. He suffered disease, privations and inadequate financial support, as well as the indifference of many Indian families. However, he refused to waver from his mission and after forty years, having retired from the mission, he spent the remainder of his life organizing churches and seeking financial support for Indian education.

Dwight Mission, Oklahoma · United States