There are many things that we take for granted—one is the easy access we have to quality dental care. Hundreds of dentists in the area can professionally take care of cleanings, cavities and other tooth-related needs. Like many other aspects of the medical profession, that convenience was not available in Tampa during much of the 19th century.
The first dentist believed to serve the city was Dr. W. H. Lovejoy, who came to Tampa in December 1860 and spent the winter treating the area’s dental needs. It was assumed Dr. Lovejoy was trained as a dentist, as he claimed references from the Bellevue and City Hospitals of New York and the New Orleans Cabinet of Dental Surgery.
It’s unknown how good of a job Dr. Lovejoy did, as the Civil War interrupted the printing of newspapers in Tampa until the latter part of the 1860s. It wasn’t until 1868 that news of another dentist to serve Tampa’s problem teeth hit the papers. Dr. M. A. Hackelford came to Tampa for the winter, but it appears Dr. Hackelford’s time in Tampa was short-lived. In 1871, another itinerant dentist, Dr. Hamlin, arrived for one week of dental services. Dr. Hamlin, perhaps burned before, required that all work be paid for before the patient left his office.
Though Dr. Hamlin was a traveling dentist, Dr. P. McMullin arrived in Tampa that same year to set up permanent residence. A few years later, the Dutch-born Dr. E. Neve arrived in Tampa to offer his services along with friend and fellow Dutchman Dr. H. P. Jensen, who was a general physician and surgeon. The two advertised their business in 1877, and it didn’t stop at medicine. Dr. Neve, in particular, had another interesting skill—he was an expert watchmaker and jeweler.
Several other dentists began to arrive in Tampa during this pioneering time. By 1884, 19 dentists in Florida (including a handful from Tampa) formed the Florida State Dental Society. With that, the pioneer era of dentistry, at least in the city and the state, was over.
In 1909, 25 years after the Dental Society was founded, George W. Coffee became the first Black dentist in Tampa. Five years later, Coffee was joined on Central Avenue by Dr. L. A. Howell and Breland A. Brumick, perhaps the most prominent Black dentist in Tampa during the era of segregation, began his practice in 1917. Desegregation in medicine, including dentistry, wouldn’t arrive in Tampa for another five decades.
Rodney Kite-Powell is a Tampa-born author, the official historian of Hillsborough County and the director of the Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center, where he has worked since 1995.
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