Benjamin Strickland (1810-1889)

Strickland came to Cleveland from Montpelier, Vermont in 1835 and became the city's first dentist. At that time there were only about 500 hundred dentists practicing in the United States, and Cleveland's population was around five thousand. At the organization of the Northern Ohio Dental Association in 1857, Strickland called the meeting to order and the following year was elected president, a post he held for eight years.