Dr. Benjamin Murray Hypes, medical practitioner, educator and author, stands conspicuously forth as one of the eminent representatives of his profession in St. Louis. A native of Illinois, Dr. Hypes was born in Lebanon, St. Clair county, July 31, 1846. His father, Benjamin Hypes, was a native of Botetourt county, Virginia, in which county his great-grandfather, Nicholas Hypes, took up his abode on coming from Germany to the new world while America was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. He married Patience Reynolds, who came of Puritan ancestry. Henry Hypes, the grandfather of Dr. Hypes, removed from Virginia to Ohio in the year 1807, accompanied by his son, Benjamin Hypes, and settled on a farm which has since become the site of the city of Xenia. The family was identified with the pioneer development of that locality and later Benjamin Hypes became a factor in the early progress of Illinois, removing to Lebanon, St. Clair county, in 1827. He was a student in Lebanon Seminary, now McKendree College, during the first year of its existence. This institution was founded in 1827, and Benjamin Hypes pursued his studies there under the preceptorship of the renowned Rev. E. R. Ames, D. D., who subsequently became famous as a diplomat and bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church. Benjamin Hypes was a man of great force of character and extraordinary mental power and for more than a half century figured as the leading resident of Lebanon. During that period he was continuously a trustee of McKendree College and its chief patron. He stood at all times for intellectual and moral progress as well as for the material development of the community and he lived to the venerable age of ninety-one vears, while his influence still lingers like a benediction among those with whom he came in contact while he was still an active factor in the world’s work. In early manhood he married a Baltimore lady, who bore the maiden name of Caroline Murray. Mr. Hypes lived to the ripe old age of ninety-two. while his wife still survives. a hale and hearty old lady of ninety-five years. She is one of the few living, original Daughters of the Revolution.
Their son, Dr. Hypes. was reared in Lebanon and entering McKendree College, completed the full classical course and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. while the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him in 1869. He was a thorough and masterful student, holding first rank for scholarship among his associates. From boyhood he was noted for a thoughtful and studious disposition and for his power of concentration in intellectual effort. Although he was little more than a lad when he entered college it is said by one of his associates that he could master the most difficult lessons in Greek or the most abstruse proposition in mathematics in the midst of great confusion. oblivious to all surroundings that would have proved exceedingly annoying to an ordinary student. But while his intellect was thus being developed his social nature was not warped, as he was a generous, genial companion throughout his college days and a universal favorite with his fellow students. He was especially noted for his self poise and self possession under all circumstances. After completing his classical course Dr. Hypes devoted his attention for a time to educational work as a member of the faculty of the Arcadia Seminary at Arcadia, Missouri, and of the German Methodist College of Warrentown, Missouri. He imparted readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired and proved an efficient educator, but the profession of medicine attracted him and he began studying in preparation for the latter practice, becoming a student in Rush Medical College of Chicago, while later he attended lectures in the St. Louis Medical College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1872. Immediately afterward, upon competitive examination, he was appointed to the position of assistant physician in the St. Louis City Hospital and thus served for two years, during which time he added to his theoretical training the broad practical experience of hospital practice. He won for himself fame by his medical and surgical skill and for his kindly consideration of the unfortunate ones under his care.
After two years’ hospital service Dr. Hypes entered upon the private practice of medicine and has won well merited fame, becoming recognized as one of the ablest physicians of the central Mississippi valley. He has been in the strictest sense of the term a devotee of his profession, shrinking from none of its responsibilities and faithfully discharging every duty incumbent upon him. He has remained throughout his life a student of the profession and has been not a follower but a leader in investigation and research which have prompted the efficiency of the members of the medical fraternity by broadening their knowledge and giving them more intimate and accurate understanding of the great principles which underlie health and its restoration. He became one of the founders of the Marion Sims Medical College, with which he has since been identified as professor. He takes great pride in the success of the institution, and from its organization he has occupied the chair of obstetrics. He has also been a frequent contributor to medical literature and many of his monographs have been published in foreign as well as in American medical journals.
Dr. Hypes has always remained one of the stanch friends and supporters of McKendree College—his alma mater. He has contributed liberally to various institutions of a philanthropic character and has given freelv of his time and means to advance the interests of the Methodist church, of which he has long been a faithful member. The term citizenship has never been to him an idle one, for he has fully recognized his obligations to his community, to the state and nation. He has studied closely the important political problems and has acted with the republican party in campaigns involving economic and other vital political issues. Political preferment, however, has had no attraction for him, his interest being somewhat that of an independent, public-spirited man who knows that every man who enjoys the benefit of his country’s protection and its laws, should render some service in return. His kindly sympathy, his unfailing courtesy and his generous spirit have won for him a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle or his acquaintance.
