Woman of the Century/Eliza Trask Hill
HILL, Mrs. Eliza Trask, woman suffragist and journalist, born in Warren, Mass., 10th May, 1840. She is the youngest daughter of Rev. George Trask and Kuth Freeman Packard. On her father's side she is of Scotch ancestry. Her mother was a daughter of Rev. Asa Packard, of Lancaster, and granddaughter of Col Josiah Quincy, of Quincy, Miss. Mrs. Hill inherits from both father and mother the spirit of reform, her father having been well known as a temperance, anti-slavery and anti-tobacco reformer. During the Civil War Mrs. Hill's great love of country led her to obtain, by subscription, and present a flag to the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment Her presentation speech was so filled with the fire of patriotism that it produced a marked effect and was widely quoted. For ten years she was a teacher. In June, 1867, she became the wife of John Lang Hill, of Boston. She is the mother of two sons and a daughter. She 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. She is now connected with the prison and jail department She has labored earnestly for the redemption of abandoned women, but, believing that preventive is more effectual than reformatory work, she has identified herself with the societies that care for and help the working girls. Since 1879, when the right of school suffrage was grunted to the women of Massachusetts, she has been actively engaged in politics, having worked for the Prohibition party. Her services as an advocate of the Australian ballot system were in great demand. During the public school agitation in Boston in 1888, when twenty-thousand women rescued the public schools from mismanagement. Mrs, Hill was among the leaders of the movement, making plans for the campaign, helping to rally the women, and by her addresses arousing both men and women. She is now, and has been for several years, the president of the ward and city committee of independent women voters, a recognized powerful political organization. The need of a party organ was felt, and Mrs. Hill, unaided at first, began the publication, in Boston, of a weekly newspaper, which is now cared for by a stock company of women. Mrs. Hill is editor of the paper, which is called the "Woman's Voice and Public School Champion. "