Elizabeth D. Hill (1866-1948)
By Nicole Bellmay, undergraduate student, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
This biographical sketch was first published on the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States and appears here by permission. That database is accessible at https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/VOTESforWOMEN
President of New Brunswick Equal Suffrage League, Temporary Chairman of the League of Women Voters in New Jersey
Elizabeth D. Hill was born on May 19, 1866 in New York City. She was the eldest of four daughters of John T. Hill, a bank cashier, and Mary E. Hill. By the time Hill was four years old, her family had moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey. Not much could be found about Hill’s youth, other than that she completed high school. Hill was religious, and frequently took part in activities and theatrical productions at her Episcopal church, St. John the Evangelist. She often played the organ at services or accompanied visiting performers. Hill was also a member of the Golf Club in New Brunswick, knew how to drive a car, and ran a boarding house known as “the Bayard” with her mother until the latter’s death in 1928.
Hill was very active in women’s suffrage in New Brunswick. Records of her involvement in suffrage groups date back to 1915, when Hill went “poll watching” with other suffragists in Middlesex County and marched in a women’s suffrage parade in New York City. She also headed a reception committee of the New Brunswick Political Study Club who held plan a conference reception where prominent New Jersey suffragist Lillian Feickert spoke. In 1914, Hill spoke at an assembly in Old Bridge, NJ in favor of women’s suffrage. In 1915, she wrote letters to the editor of the Daily Home News newspaper to dispel incorrect information on women’s suffrage. In 1916, Hill was elected president of the New Brunswick Equal Suffrage League, making her an important leader in the fight for suffrage in Middlesex County and New Jersey. She is also noted as distributing literature for the New Brunswick Suffrage League in 1918. Hill’s involvement in women’s suffrage in New Brunswick continued through 1921, after the vote was won. In 1920, Hill served as the temporary chairman of the Voters’ League in New Brunswick, and was president of the Non-Partisan Voters’ League. By 1940, she had left New Brunswick and moved to Manhattan, where eight years later, in 1948, Elizabeth D. Hill died at the age of eighty-two.
Sources:
“Local Women Attend Voters’ League Meet,” Daily Home News, October 18, 1921, pg. 8
“Local Women Form Voters’ League Aa Enthusiastic Meeting,” Daily Home News, September 11, 1920, pg. 3
“Miss Emma Ives Heads League of Women Voters,” Daily Home News, October 17, 1921, pg. 7
“Miss Hill Answers ‘H.S’’s Criticism of Suffrage,” Daily Home News, May 25, 1915, pg. 6
“Miss Hill Heads Suffrage League,” Daily Home News, April 15, 1916, pg. 7
“Mrs. Feickert to Speak to Suffragists,” Daily Home News, July 23, 1915, pg. 2
“Officers Elected in League of Women Voters,” The Sunday Times, September 12, 1920, pg. 4
“Old Bridge Goes Wild Over Suffrage,” Daily Home News, June 26, 1914, pg. 2
“Suffrage Scramble on Tuesday,” Daily Home News, October 16, 1915, pg. 1
“Suffragists Hold Big Meeting and Elect Officers,” Daily Home News, April 24, 1917, pg. 4
United States Federal Census 1870, New Brunswick, New Jersey –Ancestry.com
United States Federal Census 1940, New York, New York –Ancestry.com
U.S. Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current –Ancestry.com
“Women Triumphant,” Daily Home News, August 19, 1920, pg. 6
“35 Women Enroll in Non-Partisan Voters’ League,” Daily Home News, October 21, 1920, pg. 10