John H. Hill

John Henry Hill was born on 4 July 1852 in Charles Town, Virginia (present-day West Virginia).[3][lower-alpha 2] Hill was born into slavery, under the ownership of the William Alexander family.[3] William Alexander was later named as Hill's natural father.[3] At the age of ten, Hill ran away from home, was captured by Union soldiers, and taken in by Captain Samuel Whitmore.[3] Whitmore sent Hill to school in New York.[3] Hill relocated to Maine, where he studied Latin, attended Litchfield Academy, and taught school to pay for his expenses.[3] From 1877 to 1879, Hill worked at the law office of Talliman and Larrabee while he studied law.[3] In 1881, Hill was the first African American to be admitted to the bar of the Jefferson County Circuit Court.[4] He was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1882.[3]

Hill commenced his career in education as a schoolteacher in Shepherdstown.[5] African-American historian Carter G. Woodson wrote that Hill was the "most prominent teacher that Shepherdstown had" and that he was remembered in the community for the efficiency of his work.[5] By September 1889, Hill served as the principal of Shepherdstown's African-American public school, with 63 students.[6] He was reappointed to this position by the school's board of trustees in 1891.[7] Hill sought to add grade levels to Shepherdstown's African-American school, and he worked to standardize instruction there.[5] He served as the school's principal until 1893,[8][9] when he was succeeded in his position as principal in Shepherdstown by Alexander Freeman.[5]

While in Shepherdstown, Hill was a proponent of the temperance movement, and in May 1890, he delivered an address to a temperance meeting at Shepherdstown's African Methodist Episcopal Church.[10]

In 1893, Hill was appointed assistant principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute in Farm, West Virginia (present-day Institute).[8][9] Hill's appointment to the institute was championed by A. S. Dandridge, Jefferson County's representative to the West Virginia Legislature.[8][9] 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.[11][12] Following the resignation of the institute's principal James Edwin Campbell in 1894, Hill was appointed by the president of the Board of Regents to fill Campbell's unexpired term.[1][13][14] 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.[1][13][14][lower-alpha 1] Hill presided over the institute's first commencement.[1] 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.[15] In addition to his duties as principal, Hill also taught mathematics.[15]

Hill resigned his position as principal in 1898 to fight in the Spanish–American War,[1][13][16] and he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the United States Volunteers in July 1898.[13][14][16][17] In addition to Hill, six of the institute's students enlisted, four of whom were made non-commissioned officers.[16] Hill was honorably discharged that same year in 1898.[13] 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.[14][17] Hill returned to the institute when he was appointed as Commandant of Cadets and professor of mathematics in June 1899.[1][13] As commandant, Hill led the institute's cadets in West Virginia military parades.[18][19]

In February 1900, Hill announced his candidacy for a Kanawha County seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.[20] Hill was the only African-American candidate for a legislative seat in West Virginia's primary elections.[21] He narrowly lost to Shelton Johnson in the Republican primary in May 1900.[21]

Hill resigned from his positions at the West Virginia Colored Institute in 1903, and he spent the following year traveling across the Western United States and Mexico.[13] He then resided in Maine and Oklahoma before returning to West Virginia.[13] Hill visited institute (then known as West Virginia Collegiate Institute) in November 1922, and delivered a presentation on "Mexico and Its People," based upon his personal knowledge from his travels in Mexico.[22] By 1923, Hill was connected with the Workmen's Department of Compensation in nearby Charleston.[13] While Hill no longer worked directly for the institute, he continued his affiliation with the school as an occasional lecturer at student assemblies and informal advisor to students.[13]

Hill was a member of the West Virginia Teachers' Association. He participated in the association's third annual meeting in Parkersburg in 1893,[23] 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.[24]

In January 1889, Hill married Etta Lovett in Harpers Ferry.[25]

Hill died on 13 October 1936 in Institute.[26] He was interred at Institute Cemetery.[27]

West Virginia State University's Hill Hall is named for Hill.[1][28] Hill Hall was a dormitory for upper class women, and was built between 1936 and 1937 and renovated in 1979.[28] Hill Hall formerly housed West Virginia State's Counseling and Tutoring Center, Upward Bound, and Special Services.[28] Hill Hall currently houses the university's Business Administration, Economics, English, History, Modern Foreign Language, Political Science, and Sociology Departments.[28]