Old Missoula

Historical Dental Notes

First came Lewis and Clark, then men in search of fur and gold, and then men with plows and soon with the help of business and professional people there emerged our Montana pattern of culture. There has been no official recorded history of Montana dentists but memory and source material list if but inaccurately these events:

In Granville Stuart’s “Forty Years on the Frontier” he states that “On August 5, 1862, Dr. H. A. McKellops (army) pulled a tooth for me.” The first dentist to actually locate in Montana was probably Dr. Alman P. Robinson. He came to Bannock on July 1, 1864, and in a Helena paper in 1868 appears the following: “Robinson and Company – all kinds of work in dentistry in first class style.” In the Montana Post of 1865 appears the copy of William Decker, surgeon-dentist, “Patients visited in the homes when desired.”

In 1876 Dr. C. W. Lombard arrived in Missoula and began the first local dental practice. Another early Missoula dentist, Dr. W. F. Robinson, was a member of the first State Board of Dental Examiners.

In 1910 The Western Montana Dental Society was formed and it became a working component of the Montana State Dental Society. Dr. T. T. Rider was an officer of both of these organizations. Today the Missoula County Dental Society is a component society of the American Dental Association. Dr. W. B. Bessire is President of the Local Society and Dr. M. B. Porter of Missoula is President-Elect of the State Dental Association.

The Missoula County Dental Society salutes the people of Missoula in the celebration of their Centennial

Missoula County Dental Society

William B. Bessire –  John C. Hawke – Jerome G. Murphy

David V. Diggs – Robert A. Hawkins – Robert G. Murphy

Duane A. Englund – Robert H. Johnson – Gorden M. Overland

William M. Fry – Warren J. Knight – Alfred G. Phelps

Leonard E. Hall – Morris D. Laine – Tylar E. Phelps

Kenneth R. Hansen – Camille H La Porte – Marvin B. Porter

Harley A. Raykowski – Robert D. Shaver

Frank G. Reineke – Neil A. Stacey

F. Gordon Reynolds – David B. Tawney

Marvin P. Reynolds – William L. Wade

William A. Richter – Fredrick L. Whitsell

Thiel T. Rider – Lloyd L. Zimmerman