Dr. John Allen Throckmorton
Dr. John Allen Throckmorton was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, October 5, 1849. When six years of age he was taken to Virginia by his father, and there attended school and worked on a farm. Finally he began teaching, which profession he followed about five years. He then travelled for E. Buttrick & Co. through the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but after two years resigned his position to study dentistry with Dr. Long, of Martinsburg, Va. He then attended a course of instruction in the Baltimore Dental College, and returned to Virginia. A little later his parents died, the old Virginia farm was sold, and he moved to Sidney, where he entered upon the practice of dentistry, having taken an additional course of instruction at Ann Arbor, Michigan, University. He has since 1879 been an active member of the State Dental Society, and is quite an inventive genius in his profession, as is attested by some professional instruments of his device. One such instrument is used for holding the teeth under the process of grinding. This was deemed so important an invention that the Dean of the College of Dental Surgery spoke of it in terms of high encomium, and recommended it to the profession.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883