In celebration of Black History Month, we should take the time to remember an inventor who was born and raised right here in Oswego, New York. His name was Dr. George Franklin Grant. Grant was a talented engineer who was brought up by his formerly enslaved parents after his birth on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1847.

Their family relied on his father who made a living as a local barber in the basement of the building which now houses the Children’s Museum of Oswego, and who eventually introduced the young George Grant to the town dentist that would inspire his illustrious career. After having Grant work his way up from a simple errand boy to a respected lab assistant, the Oswego community dentist supported the young boy’s dream to travel to Boston, Massachusetts for dental school in the year of 1867. 

At the time, the Massachusetts capital city was flourishing in postbellum United States, becoming a hub for the budding Civil Rights Movement that was spreading across the country like wildfire. Attracting both formerly enslaved persons and abolitionists alike, George Grant found himself surrounded by kindred spirits such as Richard Greener, who was the first Black person to graduate from Harvard University. Grant soon emblazoned his own trail of success, becoming an official Doctor of Dental Medicine and the second African American individual to graduate from Harvard Dental School, with honors no less. After his graduation Grant continued to work with the Harvard Dental School as their first Black professor in their esteemed department dedicated to Treatment for Cleft Palate and Cognate Diseases.

Grant patented and designed custom “oblate palates” to assist people with cleft palate defects, which is a genetic condition where the bones and soft tissue in the roof of the mouth are not fully closed. Throughout his career he was known as a kind man who helped others in need, even offering charity dental work for patients from the surrounding impoverished communities. 

The late doctor was an avid golf player who sponsored the construction of a beautiful meadowed golf course by his home in the Boston suburbs. At the time, golf players were expected to line up their shots on top of a small mound of dirt which was to be formed by the player’s hands. Grant found issue with this irritating aspect of one of his favorite pastimes, leading him to invent the world’s first wooden golf tee.

On Dec. 12, 1899, he received the U.S. patent No. 638,920, the official patent for his personal invention. Although his contribution to this engineering achievement would not be nationally recognized for another century. A white man from New Jersey, who innovated Grant’s invention was falsely given credit for the original patent. More information about Grant’s life and career can be found at the Oswego Public Library, where he was one of their first patrons.