Dr. Benjamin R. McAllaster

MCALLISTERHOWITT, MUNGER, CORNBEST, CROMER, EVANS, MERRITT, CONNER, WINTER WIEDENMANN, SAYRE

Posted By: Waunita Gibbons (email)
Date: 8/18/2015 at 11:20:41

Mt. Pleasant Free Press, March 17, 1932.
Death Calls Dr. B. R. McAllaster. Asst. Supt. of Mt. Pleasant State Hospital Passed Away Thursday Night.
Dr. R. B. McAllaster, assistant Superintendent of the Mt. Pleasant State Hospital for the Insane, passed away at his home on the Avenue at half after eight o'clock last evening. His death was fully expected as heart trouble, for some time developing, had become very acute during the last two weeks and it was known by himself and family that the end might come without a moments notice. The first of the week his condition was alarming and it was feared that his son, David, would not be able to arrive home, but the Doctor rallied and it looked as if he might be given a new lease on life. Night before last, howver, he suffered a relapse, but again rallied.
Last evening he was cheerful and had been talking with Mrs. AcAllaster. She had occasion to leave the room for a moment and on her return the doctor had passed on evidently without a struggle.
Dr. McAllaster was well known by the medical profession of the state and recognized as one of the most proficient members. His work had been mostly with the insane on which he was considered an authority and often appeared as an expert.
The Doctor was born Dec.21,1868 at Newfield, N.Y. Later the family moved to Iowa and Dr. Mcallaster was graduated from the medical school at Iowa City with the class of 1894. He practiced at Leon, Iowa for eight years and then began his institutional work at the Cherokee State Hospital for the Insane in 1902. Here he served on the medical staff until 1921, except for nearly two years medical service in the World War where he was commissioned as a Major.
In 1921 Dr. McAllaster came to the hospital here as first assistant and most efficiently and to the greatest satisfaction of the hospital authorities has been his record.
Dr. McAllaster leaves his widow and two children, David now in college in California, but at home at the time, and Josephone, a junior at Wesleyan. His mother still lives and makes her home with a daughter, Mrs. Jennie Howitt in Colorado Springs. Other relatives are a brother, B. Frank McAllaster at Newfield, N.Y.; another brother, Stephen McAllaster, King City, Mo.; Mrs. Lou Munger, a sister at Hoyt, Kan., and another sister, Mrs. Jack Combest, Adrian, Mo.
No arrangements for the funeral of Dr. Mc.Allaster have been announced.

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Funeral services for Dr. Benjamin R. McAllaster, who passed away Thursday evening at his home on the Avenue, were held Sunday afternoon at the chapel of the Mt. Pleasant State Hospital, where for a number of years he had served as assistant superintendent. The chapel was filled and also the gallery with co-workers and friends of the beloved physician. Physicians of the town, county and surrounding area were seated in a body. The American Legion and the Auxiliary were there also in large numbers. The college chapter of Phi Delta Theta, of which Mr. David McAllaster was a member, was there with its full membership and the college fraternity of Pi Beta Phi of which Miss Josephine is a member, was also there with a large representation. The music was furnished by a quartette consisting of Messrs. Cromer, Evans, Merritt and Conner, which sang two numbers. Mrs. Dan Winter, at the organ played two numbers and Dr. E. Wiedenmann of the hospital staff played, very beautifuly, a piano number.
The services were conducted by Dr. Sayre, rector of St. Michael's Episcopal church of this city and a warm, personal friend of Dr. McAllaster. His tribute to the character, the life and the work of Dr. McAllaster was affectionate, beautiful and deservedly so. His message to the living comforting, assuring and inspirational.
Aside from the tribute to the memory of the Doctor as expressed by the large attendance upon his funeral and the many beautiful floral pieces a letter was read by Dr. Sayre from Supt. Mack in wherein he expressed his personal tribute and that of the Doctor's coworkers in the hospital to the loyalty, the zeal and the integrity of Dr. Mc Allaster. There was a letter from the State Board of Control of State Institutions in the same tenor.
At the close of the service the Legion passed out with their flags and colors, the Doctor having been a veteran of the World War with nearly two years of over sea service, and on the lower corridor formed on each side of the passage and through this the friends passed on to their cars without.
At midnight the body of Dr. McAllaster, accompanied by his son David, was placed on the midnight train for the journey to Utica, New York, where at Newfields, near by, interment will be made in the family burial plot.