In the latter part of the eightenth century and early parts of the
nineteenth there were only a few men engaged in the practice of dentistry in
all of America. Dentistry in those days was nothing but a trade, linked in
many cases with the barber trade and usually by those less than scroupulous
in demeanor. "5o much so was this true that some wag composed the following
lines as descriptive of the times:
'His pole with pewter basin hung,
With rotten teeth in order strung,
And cups that in the winter stood
Lined with red rags to look like blood,
Did well his threefold trade explain
Who shaved, drew teeth and bled a vein.* (l)
It also must be remembered that at that time there were no laws governing
the practice of dentistry. In fact the first law concerning the practice of
dentistry in North Carolina did not pass until 1B79. Anyone who chose could
promote himself as a dentist. "Dr. Gwen Griffin Johnson, of Chapel Hill, records
in her book, "Ante-Bellum North Carolina, how one unscrupulous itenerant so-
railed dentist dug up a body soon after its burial to obtain the gold from its
^eeth". (2)
In the early eighteen hundreds there were few towns large enough to support
a dentist full time so usually the citizen's needs were served by itenerant
circuit-riders who appeared every few months to serve the town's dental requirements. Such an arrival was noted in a May, 1829 issue of the Greensboro
Patriot as follows:
"Charles B. Pelton, Dentist, respectfully informs the citizens of Greensborough that he will remain for a few days at (Br. (Tlorings, in order to
attend to the calls in his profession, He intends to visit Greensborough
regularly several times a year, from which arrangements his patients will
derive nearly all the advantages which would result from a constant resident among them."
•One of those traveling dentists in 1833 most accommodatingly announced
that he would wait upon the ladies in their homes if they preferred." (3)
A similar advertisement reportedly from a Hillsboro paper, "The Recorder,
August 22, 1821, of one ITIr. Hurley, stated that he "operated for all diseases of
I .
In the latter part of the eightenth century and early parts of the
nineteenth there were only a few men engaged in the practice of dentistry in
all of America. Dentistry in those days was nothing but a trade, linked in
many cases with the barber trade and usually by those less than scroupulous
in demeanor. "5o much so was this true that some wag composed the following
lines as descriptive of the times:
'His pole with pewter basin hung,
With rotten teeth in order strung,
And cups that in the winter stood
Lined with red rags to look like blood,
Did well his threefold trade explain
Who shaved, drew teeth and bled a vein.* (l)
It also must be remembered that at that time there were no laws governing
the practice of dentistry. In fact the first law concerning the practice of
dentistry in North Carolina did not pass until 1B79. Anyone who chose could
promote himself as a dentist. "Dr. Gwen Griffin Johnson, of Chapel Hill, records
in her book, "Ante-Bellum North Carolina, how one unscrupulous itenerant so-
railed dentist dug up a body soon after its burial to obtain the gold from its
^eeth". (2)
In the early eighteen hundreds there were few towns large enough to support
a dentist full time so usually the citizen's needs were served by itenerant
circuit-riders who appeared every few months to serve the town's dental requirements. Such an arrival was noted in a May, 1829 issue of the Greensboro
Patriot as follows:
"Charles B. Pelton, Dentist, respectfully informs the citizens of Greensborough that he will remain for a few days at (Br. (Tlorings, in order to
attend to the calls in his profession, He intends to visit Greensborough
regularly several times a year, from which arrangements his patients will
derive nearly all the advantages which would result from a constant resident among them."
•One of those traveling dentists in 1833 most accommodatingly announced
that he would wait upon the ladies in their homes if they preferred." (3)
A similar advertisement reportedly from a Hillsboro paper, "The Recorder,
August 22, 1821, of one ITIr. Hurley, stated that he "operated for all diseases of
I .
