page_title: John H. Hill
section_title: West Virginia Colored Institute
hierarchical_section_title: John H. Hill / West Virginia Colored Institute
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Fleming Hall, West Virginia Colored Institute, Institute, West Virginia (1910)
context_page_description: John Henry Hill was an American lawyer, educator, school administrator, and military officer. He was the second principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute from 1894 until 1898; West Virginia State considers him its second president.
  Hill was born into slavery in 1852 in Charles Town, Virginia. He ran away toward the end of the American Civil War and Major J. H. Whitmore of the 15th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment then took him to Maine. Major Whitmore's father Samuel Whitmore provided Hill with an education, and he later attended Bowdoin College. In 1879, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Judicial Court of Sagadahoc County, Maine, thus becoming Maine's second African-American lawyer, before relocating to his native Jefferson County, West Virginia. In 1881, Hill was the first African American to be admitted to the bar of the Jefferson County Circuit Court becoming the first African-American lawyer in West Virginia. Hill then served for six years in the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, during which time he participated in the campaign against Geronimo in the Apache Wars.
context_section_description: In 1893, Hill was appointed as the English professor and assistant principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute in Farm, West Virginia, (present-day Institute). A. S. Dandridge, Jefferson County's representative to the West Virginia Legislature, championed Hill's appointment to the institute. The institute had been founded in 1891 under the Morrill Act of 1890, to provide West Virginia's African Americans with education in agricultural and mechanical studies.
  Following the resignation of the institute's principal James Edwin Campbell in 1894, the president of the Board of Regents appointed Hill to finish Campbell's unexpired term. In June 1894, at the regular meeting of the board, Hill was elected and duly installed as the second principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute. Hill presided over the institute's first commencement. By May 1898, the faculty under Hill consisted of C. E. Jones teaching natural science and history, Byrd Prillerman teaching English and mental science, James M. Canty teaching mechanics and mechanical drawing, Hill's wife Etta Hill teaching music, drawing, and Latin, and Flayvilla D. Brown teaching sewing. In addition to his duties as principal, Hill also taught mathematics. Throughout his tenure as principal at the institute, Hill and his wife resided in Fleming Hall.
  As the institute's principal, Hill was a member of the West Virginia Teachers' Association. He participated in the association's third annual meeting in Parkersburg in 1893, and at the association's fourth annual meeting in Montgomery in 1894, Hill was appointed to a committee to urge the West Virginia Legislature to make an appropriation to the West Virginia Colored Institute's teaching fund. He attended the association's fifth meeting in Hinton in 1895 and the sixth meeting in Charleston in 1896, where he provided the welcoming remarks.
  Hill resigned his position as principal in 1898 to fight in the Spanish–American War, and he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 8th United States Infantry Volunteer Immunes of the United States Volunteers on July 19, 1898. He was also appointed as the regimental commissary officer. In addition to Hill, six of the institute's students enlisted, four of whom were made non-commissioned officers. Hill was honorably discharged the next year on March 6, 1899. Following his resignation, the Board of Regents placed James M. Canty of the Mechanical Department in charge of the school until the board's election of James McHenry Jones in September 1898. Hill returned to the institute when he was appointed as Commandant of Cadets and professor of mathematics in June 1899. As commandant, Hill led the institute's cadets in West Virginia military parades.
  In February 1900, Hill announced his candidacy for a Kanawha County seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Hill was the only African-American candidate for a legislative seat in West Virginia's primary elections. He narrowly lost to Shelton Johnson in the Republican primary in May 1900.
caption: Fleming Hall at West Virginia Colored Institute (1910)
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