Representative Charles McAllister View All Years

HON. DR. CHARLES MCALLISTER.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appoint to prepare and present suitable resolutions respecting the life, character and public services of the Hon. Dr. Charles McAllister, late member of the House of Representatives of the Seventeenth General Assembly, beg leave to report the following:

The subject of this memorial was born at South Lee, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1840, and died at the place of his birth on Sunday, July 20th, 1913.

He was of Scotch descent, his grandfather, Alexander McAllister, being born in the “Land of Robert Bruce, of Wallace, John Knox, and the immortal covenantors;” and the sturdy Scotch traits were manifest in Dr. McAllister, tempered and modified by the refining influence of the Empire state and New England during two generations. His father, John McAllister, was born in Columbia, New York, and was married to Miss Cynthia Heath, a descendant of one of the old Puritan families. So that he had in his veins the best blood of two great peoples. His father was a traditional Scotch Presbyterian and his mother a Methodist, showing a fitting heredity for the great and useful life which he lived.

Though he came of a long-lived family, his grandfather living to more than ninety years and his father and mother to seventy-four, yet all his father’s family, two brothers and one sister had died, and his own family of three sons had all died, leaving him the sole survivor of the family. In his early life his own health was precarious and only the exercise of strong will dominated the body and gave him a long lease of life.

He graduated from Williams college in the class of 1863, and prior to this he had taught school for two winters.

He took up the study of medicine after graduating from Williams college, and in 1865 he graduated from Berkshire Medical College. He practiced for five years at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, with eminent success. In 1870 he removed to Dixon, Illinois, where he remained two years, and in 1872 he came to Spencer, Iowa, where for forty-one years he ministered to the suffering and was kind to everybody.

He was married January 1, 1869, to Miss Mary McAllister, adopted daughter of his uncle, Charles McAllister. Three sons were given to them, all of whom have died, the last, Alexander, dying in 1912, the wife having died in April, 1892. On December 28, 1898, he was again married to Miss Fanny Spencer of Alden, Iowa, who had been a teacher in the Spencer schools, with whom he spent the remaining years of his life happily, and who is now left to sorrow for the one loved and “not lost but gone before”.

Dr. McAllister was always interested in politics, and served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Seventeenth General Assembly with honor and distinction. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Royal Arch Mason, Knight Templar and Shriner. He also held membership in the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He was a member of the Congregational church as well as a trustee, and he always gave liberally of his time and money to the support of the church.

In a word, he was always a public spirited, upright, honorable man, and,

WHEREAS, The life and character of the deceased were such as to entitle his memory to the respect and esteem of all who knew him, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives take this occasion to express its appreciation of his character and public services, and at this time extend to his widow its sincere sympathy in her sorrow; and

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the chief clerk be directed to send an enrolled copy to the widow of the deceased.

CHAS. GILMORE,

J. H. ANDERSON,

J. W. SULLIVAN,

Committee.

Adopted unanimously.