Editing Cephas Washburn

{{short description|American missionary}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = <!-- use common name/article title -->Cephas Washburn
| image              = AR Washburn Cephas.jpg
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1793|07|25}}
| birth_place        = [[Rutland (town), Vermont|Rutland]], [[Vermont]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1860|03|17|1793|07|25}}
| death_place        = [[Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]], U.S.
| other_names        = 
| education          = [[University of Vermont]],<br/> [[Andover Theological Seminary]]
| occupation         = Minister, missionary
| years_active       = 1819–1860
| known_for          = Missionary to the Cherokee people
| notable_works      = 
| spouse             = Abigail F. Woodward
| children           = [[Edward Payson Washburn]]
}}

'''Cephas Washburn''' (July 25, 1793 – March 17, 1860) was a [[Christianity|Christian]] [[missionary]] and educator who worked with the [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee]] of northwest [[Arkansas]] and eastern [[Oklahoma]]. He later worked to establish churches in Arkansas.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHsjAQAAMAAJ&dq=cephas+washburn&pg=PA68 | title=The Illustrated Historical Souvenir of Randolph, Vermont: Containing a Brief History of the Early Settlement of the Town, the Schools, Churches, Medical and Legal Professions, Old Families, Business and Manufacturing Interests, Together with Portraits and Biographies of the Citizens Past and Present | last1=Cox | first1=Nickerson | year=1895 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Whayne |first=Jeannie M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThTBc-E85agC&q=cephas+washburn+release+establish+church+arkansaschurches&pg=PA302 |title=Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives |date=2000-01-01 |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |isbn=978-1-55728-587-4 |pages=302 |language=en}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Cephas Washburn was born on July 25, 1793, in [[Rutland (town), Vermont|Rutland, Vermont]]. His parents were Josiah W. and Phebe ([[née]] Cushman) Washburn.<ref name="EOHC-Washburn">[https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=WA032 Everett, Dianna. "Washburn, Cephas (1793-1860)." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Accessed January 10, 2019.</ref> His father was a farmer, and Cephas seemed destined to follow in that occupation. However, he suffered a broken leg while working and decided to take up teaching as a career. While raising enough money to pursue higher education, he taught school in Groton, Massachusetts, in 1814 and 1815. While teaching, he became a member of the Congregationalist church and decided to become a missionary to the Indians.<ref name="EOA-Washburn">[http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1793 Stewart-Abernathy,  Leslie C. "Cephas Washburn (1793–1860)." ''Encyclopedia of Arkansas''. 2009.] Accessed February 11, 2019.</ref> 

He graduated from the [[University of Vermont]], and the [[Andover Theological Seminary]].<ref name="Phillips" /> After graduating from the University of Vermont, he was ordained as a Congregational minister. The Royalton Congregational Association in Randolph, Vermont, licensed Washburn to preach in January 1818.<ref name="EOA-Washburn" /> 

On October 6, 1818, he married Abigail F. Woodward of [[Randolph, Vermont]].<ref name="EOHC-Washburn" />

==Career==
After the Washburns were married, Cephas was ordained in 1818 in [[Waitsfield, Vermont]], by the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]] (ABCFM) to serve as a [[missionary]] to the Eastern Cherokee Indians, who then lived primarily lived in the U.S. State of Georgia.<ref name="Phillips">{{Cite book|title=The Brainerd Journal: A Mission to the Cherokees, 1817-1823|author= Joyce B. Phillips, Paul Gary Phillips|year= 1998|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-3718-9|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4lLV8jGq-qcC&q=%22Cephas+Washburn%22&pg=PA485}}</ref> He was assigned to the Cherokee. He remained in Georgia for about one year. Then the ABCFM sent him to Arkansas as the missionary to Cherokees who had already begun moving west. These people would thereafter be called "Western Cherokees".<ref name="EOHC-Washburn"/>

He served as a [[missionary]] to the [[Cherokee]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] at [[Brainerd Mission]], Tennessee, for a short while.  He migrated with them westward, arriving in [[Arkansas]] in 1819.<ref>{{cite book| last =Valenčius |first =Conevery Bolton| title =The Health of the Country: How American Settlers Understood Themselves and Their Land | publisher =Basic Books | year =2002 | location =  New York | pages =26 | isbn =0-465-08986-0}}</ref> This was a group that removed relatively early from the Southeast, rather than waiting for forced removal after the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.  Most Cherokee were removed across the Mississippi River to a designated part of Indian Territory (present Eastern Oklahoma)in 1838.

The party that traveled to Arkansas included not only Cephas Washburn and his wife, but also his brother in law, Reverend Alfred Finney, as well as several others who would support the educational facility. Washburn founded [[Dwight Presbyterian Mission]] near present-day [[Russellville, Arkansas|Russellville]] in 1820 to serve the newly arrived [[Cherokee]]. Dwight was the first American mission to the Indians west of the [[Mississippi River]]. It was named for Rev. [[Timothy Dwight IV|Timothy Dwight]], president of [[Yale University|Yale College]] and a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Dwight Mission (later called "Old Dwight Mission") in Arkansas was supplanted by another mission with the same name in Indian Territory, near what is now [[Sallisaw, Oklahoma]]. The latter became known as "New Dwight Mission".

Washburn served as the primary Indian missionary in the Arkansas region until he resigned in 1850.  From 1850 to 1856 he served as minister for the First [[Presbyterian]] Church in [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]].

==Later life, death and burial==
Cephas Washburn died at [[Little Rock, Arkansas]], on March 17, 1860, of [[pneumonia]], while traveling to [[Helena, Arkansas]], for an evangelical meeting. He is buried at the historic [[Mount Holly Cemetery]] in downtown Little Rock.

==Family==
Washburn's son [[Edward Washburn|Edward Payson Washburn]] was the artist who painted the well-known ''Arkansas Traveller'' painting. It received wide distribution and recognition when printed as a [[Currier & Ives]] [[lithograph]]. The painting was inspired by the humorous song "[[The Arkansas Traveler (song)|Arkansas Traveller]]" by [[Sandford C. Faulkner]]. His granddaughter [[Mabel Washbourne Anderson]] was a noted Cherokee writer.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1949-09-22 |title=Death Takes Mrs. Mabel W. Anderson, Colorful Pioneer of Oklahoma |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pryor-jeffersonian-death-takes-mrs/152671856/ |access-date=2024-08-05 |work=The Pryor Jeffersonian |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1793 "Cephas Washburn"], ''Encyclopedia of Arkansas''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Washburn, Cephas}}
[[Category:1793 births]]
[[Category:1860 deaths]]
[[Category:Andover Theological Seminary alumni]]
[[Category:University of Vermont alumni]]
[[Category:People from Rutland (town), Vermont]]
[[Category:American Congregationalist missionaries]]
[[Category:Presbyterian missionaries in the United States]]
[[Category:People from Fort Smith, Arkansas]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Arkansas]]