DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Dr. Charles L. Fields — and it's one worth slowing down for.
Charles L. Fields was born in 1858, and by the time this country knew his name, he'd already earned it the hard way. When the Civil War left his mother a widow, young Charles didn't wait for the world to come to him.
He went out and cut wood to keep the family going. That right there ought to tell you something about the man. When he was old enough to dream a little bigger, he set his sights on dental school — in Chicago, no less.
And how'd he get there? He picked up a hammer. Worked as a carpenter, saved what he could, and made it happen.
Licensed in 1890, Dr. Charles L. Fields was ready to go to work.
Now here's where the story gets its Texas boots on. He came to Canadian in 1903, and then moved on to Groom in 1916. But the Panhandle didn't exactly make things easy on a traveling dentist.
His patients were scattered — out at ranch headquarters, over in Ochiltree, down in Mobeetie — folks who simply could not come to him. So he went to them. And going to them meant fording rivers.
Hauling a collapsible dental chair. Hauling a foot-powered drill. Picture that for a moment — a man crossing a swollen river somewhere out on the High Plains, dental equipment in tow, because somebody's tooth wasn't going to fix itself.
In his practice, he used iodine and laudanum — antiseptic and painkiller both. He ran his own denture lab. He met what the marker calls a large demand for gold teeth out in that country.
And when cash was scarce — and out here, it often was — he took his payment in beef and produce. Dr. Charles L.
Fields died in 1941. Born in 1858, gone in 1941 — a prominent pioneer dentist and farmer, as the marker puts it. A boy who cut wood, a carpenter who built his own future, and a doctor who crossed rivers to reach the people who needed him.
That's not a small life. That's a West Texas life.
What the marker says
(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.