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Permanent LinkRepresentative John McAllister View All Years
JOHN MCALLISTER was born in County Armagh, Ireland, November 3, 1840, and died in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, April 17, 1928. Burial was in the Palo cemetery. He immigrated to this country with his parents in 1852, the family locating on a farm in Coshocton County, Ohio. John obtained his education in rural schools and by private study and reading. He was teaching school the winter of 1861-62 when he quit and enlisted in Company I, Sixty-ninth Ohio Infantry. He was wounded at Stone River, was taken prisoner and sent to Libby prison, and was exchanged and rejoined his regiment. In 1864 he re-enlisted but in the battle of Resaca was wounded in the neck which cause him to speak afterward only in a coarse whisper. However, he rejoined his regiment and was in the famous March to the Sea and in the Grand Review at Washington May 23, 1865. Returning to Ohio he again taught school there, but removed to a farm near Palo, Linn County, Iowa, in 1866, where he followed farming, occasionally teaching a term of country school in winter. He held many township offices, among them being justice of the peace, and was elected representative in 1903, and reelected in 1906, serving in the Thirtieth, Thirty-first and Thirty-second general assemblies. Politically he was a Republican, and was a useful citizen.