Malster served as an engineer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Malster tried a number of occupations as a boy, including farming, the grocery business, selling confectionery, painting, blacksmithing and carpentering.

He then made study of steam engineering, and passed an examination before the United States inspectors.

In 1871, Malster founded a small plant for engines and steamers on Caroline Street in Baltimore.

[2][3][4][5][6] One of the contracts that helped Malster get a reputation was a yacht he built for Henri Say, a relative of Léon Say.

[6] His company also built the Calvert Street Bridge over Jones Falls and the a cable road in Philadelphia, the first east of the Rocky Mountains.

The proposed nominees included Whitfield Winsey, William Ashbie Hawkins and Walker W. Lewis, a grocer.

[7][8] He defeated Theodore Marburg in the Republican primary and Henry Williams in the general election.

The Daughters of the Confederacy were authorized to erect a monument of Confederate soldiers and sailors to Mount Royal Avenue.