page_title: Eliza Trask Hill
section_title: Activist
hierarchical_section_title: Eliza Trask Hill / Career / Activist
caption_attribution_description: English: Eliza Trask Hill
context_page_description: Eliza Trask Hill was an American activist, journalist, and philanthropist. During the Civil War, Hill obtained, by subscription, and presented a flag to the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment. Her presentation speech was so patriotic that it produced a marked effect and was widely quoted. For ten years, she was a teacher. At the age of 26, she married John Lange Hill; they had two sons and a daughter.
  Hill was one of the first to join the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and has served in an official capacity in that body from its beginning, becoming connected with the prison and jail department. She labored for the redemption of abandoned women, but, believing that preventive is more effectual than reformatory work, she identified herself with the societies that cared for and helped working women. From 1879, when the right of school suffrage was grunted to the women of Massachusetts, she was actively engaged in politics, having worked for the Prohibition Party. Her services as an advocate of the Australian ballot system were in great demand.
context_section_description: During the Civil War, Hill (then Miss Trask) collected money to give a flag to the Washington Guards of Fitchburg, presenting it the night previous to their departure for the battlefield, urging the soldiers to fight courageously for the freedom of the slave. At these words, the colonel of the regiment took offense, and in a cruel way denied that that was the issue. But brave men defended the young woman. When the Soldiers' Monument in Fitchburg was dedicated, some years after the close of the war, Hill with her two children was at her father's home. The company, much depleted, passed by, bearing the tattered flag, which had been through many battles. The two children, one representing a soldier, the other the Goddess of Liberty, were standing upon the porch of the old homestead. As the company reached the house, they halted, and saluted the children; Hill, from behind the children, responded to the graceful tribute. The colonel before his death acknowledged his mistake, and apologized for his rudeness at the time of the flag presentation.
  In June, 1867, she married John Lange Hill (1845–1930), of Boston. When the WCTU was organized (1873), Hill, who was then residing in Braintree, Massachusetts, was chosen the first president for Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Thereafter, she held some official position in that society. For ten years, she was superintendent of the prison, jail, and almshouse department, and was later superintendent in this department for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and president of the Winter Hill WCTU of Somerville, Massachusetts.
  When the Australian ballot system was introduced in Massachusetts, Hill was appointed by the Prohibition State Committee to go from town to town with the apparatus illustrating the process of voting under the new system; and large audiences composed of all parties came to see and hear. No opportunity was lost by the speaker to remind her hearers of the inconsistency of allowing a woman to instruct men in the process of voting and denying her the right to vote herself.
  In 1885, the New England Helping Hand Society was formed, its aim being to provide at a moderate rate a comfortable home for young women earning low wages. Of this society, Hill was for several years the secretary, and for ten years, she was its president. She aided in many ways in ameliorating the conditions of working men and women.
  In 1888, Hill's residence was in Charlestown. For two years, she had been president of the Ward and City Committee of Women Voters, and she was also president of the Bunker Hill Woman's Educational League, an organization that was formed in February. Through the efforts of this organization alone, 2,600 women were assessed, with a view to taking part in the school election; and a most vigorous campaign was carried on, women being stationed at the various registration places to watch proceedings. The result of the election was gratifying. Not only was the whole school board ticket successful, but the women had significant influence in bringing about a change at City Hall.
  While serving as president of the Charlestown branch of the Loyal Women of American Liberty, the Independent Women Voters' party became the outgrowth of the struggle of 1888, and until 1896, Hill was the leader of this party. In 1889, the Woman's Voice and Public School Champion was first printed. Hill became the editor and general manager (1890–1907)).
  In 1895, she was chosen State secretary of the Massachusetts Branch of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, an organization having 6,000 members in the State, comprising 270 circles and 229 independent members, who carried on charitable work. A vacation home at Hanson, Massachusetts, which accommodated 60 people, among them many mothers and their young families, was a State work. The vacation home of The King's Daughters is Gordon Rest. For eighteen years, Hill had personal supervision of this home. The work increased year by year, and was the largest undertaking of its kind in the State.
  She always stood firmly for free speech. For eightee
caption: Eliza Trask Hill
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