Homer Judd
Homer Judd was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts in 1820. He received his medical degree from the Berkshire Medical College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1847, and then moved to Baltimore to take a private course in dentistry with Dr. Cyrencurs O. Cone. Judd moved then to Ravenna, Ohio, where he practiced medicine and dentistry. In 1849 Judd went west with a wagon train destined for California; en route he was appointed train surgeon. When the train reached Santa Fe, New Mexico, Judd decided to locate there, thus becoming the first professionally trained dentist to practice in that territory. After one summer Judd returned to Ohio, and in the fall of 1850 he moved to Warsaw, Illinois and practiced medicine and dentistry in partnership with Dr. Charles Coolidge, a physician.
In 1861 Judd moved to St. Louis where he practiced dentistry until the outbreak of the Civil War. He first served as a contract surgeon in the hospital service. After the Battle of Shiloh Judd was appointed surgeon of the Thirty-fourth Missouri Infantry, where he was one of four surgeons charged with the care of five hundred wounded soldiers on board of a hospital steamer. Judd subsequently was appointed surgeon of the Fortieth Regiment of the Missouri Volunteers.
At the end of the war Judd returned to dental practice in St. Louis, where he was associated with Dr. John S. Clark. Judd’s research interest was the study of histology. In addition Judd was interested in microscopy and was active in the formation of the St. Louis Microscopical Club.
Judd became a leader in dentistry in St. Louis and the state of Missouri, helping to found the Missouri Dental Association (1865), the Missouri Dental College (1866), and the Missouri Dental Journal (1869). He served for seven years as the first dean of the Missouri Dental College and served for five years as the first editor-in-chief of the Missouri Dental Journal.
Judd served as president of the American Dental Association (1868-68), the Missouri State Dental Association (1867-68), and the St. Louis Dental Society (1869); as a member of the American Medical Association, the St. Louis Medical Society, the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, and the St. Louis Microscopical Society; and as honorary member of the California, Iowa, Sixth District Society of New York, and the Illinois State Dental Associations.
In 1880 Dr. Judd’s health failed. He retired from practice and moved first to Colorado, then Mason City, Iowa, and finally to Upper Alton, Illinois. Judd died on May 20, 1890 of cancer of the stomach and was buried in Pittsfield, Illinois.