John Greenwood (May 17, 1760 – November 16, 1819) was an American

fifer A fifer is a non-combatant military occupation of a foot soldier who originally played the fife during combat. The practice was instituted during the period of Early Modern warfare to sound signals during changes in formation, such as the line ...

and dentist, serving as

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

's personal dentist. He was responsible for designing Washington's famous dentures, which were not wood but carved from hippopotamus tusk. He invented the first known "dental foot engine" in 1790. Greenwood served as a fifer during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

at sixteen years of age. He served twenty months in Captain Theodore Bliss's company of the 26th Massachusetts Regiment, playing the fife in the Continental Army from 1775 to 1778. He was the grandson of

Isaac Greenwood Isaac Greenwood (11 May 1702 – 22 October 1745) was an American mathematician. He was the first Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard College. Biography He graduated at Harvard in 1721, and was instrumental ...

, a mathematics professor at Harvard, and son of Isaac Greenwood, the first native-born American dentist. A letter from John Greenwood to Lt. General George Washington on his denture charges, dated 1799, is in the A.D. Black History of Dentistry Collection at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

American Revolutionary War

Greenwood was born on May 17, 1760, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and lived there for most of his early life. Living a “troubled” childhood, Greenwood had become close friends with Samuel Maverick, a seventeen-year-old victim of the

Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre (known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing t ...

. He was excited by the musical sounds of the British regulars which had occupied Boston and later learned to play several tunes on the fife. At sixteen, however, he was sent to

Falmouth, Maine Falmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 12,444 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. This northern suburb of Portlan ...

, to live with his uncle. On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In May, Greenwood heard the news and alone walked from Falmouth to Boston, occasionally stopping at taverns to play music for soldiers. Writing in his autobiography, he claimed that when he was asked what he was doing he said, “I was going to fight for my country”. A few months later in June, the Americans had lost the Battle of Bunker Hill and the British were able to establish encampments in that area north of Charlestown. Greenwood had heard of this whilst walking through Cambridge, west of the battle. He witnessed struggling wounded men returning to Cambridge on foot, which discouraged him from continuing any more service. He was, however, encouraged to continue after apparently witnessing a wounded black soldier, who planned to return to battle after fixing his injuries.

References

External links

Music book given to John Greenwood, ca. 1780 , New-York Historical Society Digital Collections

History of Dentistry
at Dr. Juggles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenwood, John (dentist) 1760 births 1819 deaths American dentists People from Boston People from Falmouth, Maine