Actually, I read of it being done in Europe by World War II. I don't know how much before that it existed. But I think (without concrete data) that it was much less common before somewhere around 1950.

One thing about the early European replacement lenses is that they were transparent at least some way into the ultraviolet. It turns out that the human retina can see a short distance into the ultraviolet, but the lens blocks it. The replacement lens let the person see further into the ultraviolet than ordinary people. The OSS used these people as guides on commando raids. There would be a parachute drop of supplies, for example, and they'd put a UV beacon on it. The commandos couldn't see the beacon, and neither could the German soldiers. Only the old person with cataracts (and surgery) who was guiding the commandos could see it.

From "A Short History of Cataract Surgery":

"Cataract surgery in its simplest form is at least 4000 years old. Couching for cataract was the earliest method at about 2000 BC, and even then was evidently practiced in the Tigris / Euphrates area, as well as India and Japan. The earliest records are from The Bible and The Red Sea Scrolls as well as early Hindu records of Susruta’s time."

http://www.rila.co.uk/issues/free/001/2001/v4n2/p61_65/p61_6...

A lot of surgery was extremely risky prior to modern anti-biotics.