Historical Marker
Dr. Charles L. Fields
Historical marker location:
Groom, Texas
( On Groom Community Center, corner of Broadway and First, Groom.)
Marker installed: 1966
(1858-1941)
Prominent pioneer dentist and farmer. As a boy, cut wood to support mother widowed in Civil War. Worked as carpenter for money to attend dental school in Chicago. Licensed 1890. Came to Canadian in 1903; Groom, 1916. Traveled at times to ranch headquarters and to Ochiltree and Mobeetie, to patients unable to go to him. Often had to ford rivers, hauling his collapsible dental chair and foot-powered drill. Used iodine and laudanum as antiseptics and pain-killers. Operated his own denture lab. Met large demand for gold teeth. Often was paid in beef, produce.