Lester Noble, D.D.S.
Have you
ever had a tooth extracted
without anesthesia? Thanks in
part to Dr. Lester Noble and Dr.
Nathan Cooley Keep, you may
never have to experience that
pain.
Lester
Noble had always been good with
his hands. He first arrived in
Longmeadow in 1839 as an
apprentice to his uncle, Jacob
Colton, and learned how to
manufacture spectacles. But, he
decided to become a dentist
instead, and in 1846 he went to
Boston to study dentistry under
Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep.
Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep
Dr. Nathan
Cooley Keep, who was born and raised
in Longmeadow, was one of the
pioneers of modern dentistry. Like
Lester Noble, he was good with his
hands and had apprenticed with a
jeweler before graduating from
Harvard Medical School. Dr. Keep put
his jeweler training to good use by
manufacturing porcelain teeth, and
he invented new dental tools and
created new dental techniques.
Lester Noble studied under Dr.
Keep from 1846–1849. During this
period, a new anesthetic, ether, was
being introduced in surgical
practices. Dr. Keep was the first
physician to use anesthesia for
childbirth, administering ether to
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife,
Fanny, during the birth of her
daughter in 1847. Dr. Keep was also
one of the first physicians to use
ether in dental procedures and his
assistant, Lester Noble, became
skilled in its administration. On
many occasions, Lester would assist
Dr. Keep in dental surgery,
administering the ether while Dr.
Keep extracted teeth.
Baltimore College of Dental
Surgery
To further his
studies, in 1849 Lester Noble entered
the world's first dental college,
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. At
that time, the school was not using
ether in dental surgery because one of
the professors at the school opposed its
use. Surprised at this, Dr. Noble asked
for and was given permission to
administer ether in the college
infirmary. His great success in these
demonstrations helped this crucial
technique to become standard dental
practice. For more about Longmeadow’s
connections to painless dentistry, check
out this article by former Longmeadow
Historical Society president Michael
Gelinas-
Painless Dentistry.
After Dr. Noble
graduated in 1850, he opened a dental
office in Washington, D.C. and married
Mary Woolworth Burbank of Longmeadow.
Lester’s younger brother, Henry Bliss
Noble, followed in his brother’s
footsteps, also practicing dentistry in
Washington, D.C. and marrying a woman
from Longmeadow (Maria Bliss). In his
dental practice, Henry Bliss Noble
mentored a young African-American man
named Robert Tanner Freeman (we will
learn more about Mr. Freeman later in
this story).
In 1860, failing
eyesight forced Lester to take a break
from dental practice. He and his family
moved to 655 Longmeadow Street in
Longmeadow where they lived for the rest
of their lives. By 1869, Lester was able
to resume his dental practice; he opened
an office on Main Street in Springfield
where he practiced until 1896.
655 Longmeadow Street
In 1867, Dr. Keep became the first
dean of Harvard School of Dental
Medicine. A story from the early
years of the school highlights Dr.
Keep’s character. Robert Tanner
Freeman, the son of former slaves
(and former mentee of Henry Bliss
Noble), called upon Dr. Keep and
asked to be admitted as a student.
Perhaps Mr. Freeman brought a
recommendation from one of the Noble
brothers with him. Upon Dr. Keep’s
recommendation and insistence upon
“right and justice above
expediency”, Mr. Freeman was
admitted as one of the school's
first six students and, in 1869, Mr.
Freeman became the first
African-American to graduate from a
dental college. The tower, or castle
“keep,” that appears on the shield
of
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
honors the leadership of Dr. Nathan
Cooley Keep.
Robert Tanner Freeman
Dr.
Noble was beloved by his
patients and always regaled
them with his endless fund
of stories and anecdotes. He
was also absent-minded, and
several stories about him
have traveled down through
the years.
-
One day, Miss Annie
Willard was in the chair
receiving a new gold
filling. Dr. Noble
suddenly remembered that
he wished to mail a
letter, and he left her
in the dentist’s chair
with a rubber stretched
across her open mouth.
While he was out, he
found someone that he
needed to talk with.
Forgetting his patient,
he was out for 1½ hours
before he remembered her
and rushed back to his
office.
-
On another occasion,
his horse was stolen. He
went out to the barn in
the morning to feed the
animal and found that it
was not there. He
carefully examined all
tracks, and called in
the neighbors to help
him find his horse, but
they could find no trace
of him, so they decided
that the horse had been
stolen. But, when Dr.
Noble walked up to the
store, there was his
horse hitched to the
post – just where he had
left him on the previous
afternoon.
Dr.
Noble died in 1905, but I,
for one, will always think
of him whenever I visit my
dentist. Next week, we will
visit Dr. Keep and Dr. Noble
again as we learn of another
of their "firsts".
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