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The daughters of a United States Congressman, these three sisters worked tirelessly for the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment; they continued to fight for social justice after the suffrage victory, including the Equal Rights Amendment.

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut to Republican Congressman Ebenezer Hill and Mary Mossman Hill, the sisters attended Vassar College and decided to turn their energies toward the fight for women’s suffrage.

Clara, the eldest, was born in 1871. Following graduation from Vassar, she traveled around Connecticut, speaking to women’s church groups, factories and civic organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. She co-founded the Norwalk Equal Franchise League and also managed to find time to work in a Sunday school. She also became a Methodist missionary, serving as principal of schools in Mexico and Italy.

Born in 1875, Helena Hill, later Weed, graduated from Vassar College AND the Montana School of Mines, becoming one of the first women geologists in the country. She was very active in the suffrage movement as a member of the more militant National Woman’s Party, barnstorming the country and picketing the White House during World War I where she was arrested multiple times and served nearly 20 days in D.C. jails. One of her arrests resulted from marching to the White House to burn President Woodrow Wilson’s body in effigy for not supporting a woman’s right to vote. Another arrest followed when she carried a banner that read, “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Elsie Hill, perhaps the best known of the Hill sisters, was born in 1883.

Upon finishing Vassar, she moved to Washington, D.C. to teach French. There she met Alice Paul, a radical suffragist and one of the national leaders of the suffrage movement. In 1913, Paul recruited Elsie to join the Congressional Committee in planning the 2013 DC suffrage parade; later, she invited her to become a national organizer for the National Woman’s Party and arranged for her to tour the country, giving speeches and mobilizing support for the 19th Amendment. During 1918-19, Elsie Hill was arrested at least twice for her efforts, in Boston for picketing President Wilson on his return from Europe and again in Washington, D.C. for climbing on a public monument in front of the White House. In total, she spent 23 days in jail. She retained her birth name when she married Albert Leavitt, lawyer, politician and Judge of the U.S District Court of the Virgin Islands.

After the successful ratification of the 19th Amendment, the Hill sisters continued to work for feminist causes. Clara Hill became very active in the League of Women Voters (founded in 1920) and continued to advocate for women’s rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, fighting unsuccessfully at age 80 (!) to make Connecticut the first state to ratify the ERA. She died in 1955 at the age of 84.

 Helena Hill Weed eventually became the president of the Norwalk League of Women Voters and remained active in the National Woman’s Party, becoming a journalist along the way.  She also devoted much of her time in efforts to pass the ERA.

Helena died in 1958 at the age of 85.

Elsie Hill and Alice Paul remained close friends and collaborators their entire lives. In 1920, Elsie returned to Norwalk to run—unsuccessfully—for Connecticut Secretary of State. In 1932, she ran for Congress for her father’s old seat in Norwalk as an Independent Republican but was also unsuccessful. However, as Chairman of the National Woman’s Party, she remained a relentless advocate for the passage of the ERA and other bills, including fighting for women’s history in the curriculum. In 1968, at the age of 85, she became the only woman on the first Aeroflot flight from New York to Moscow.

Elsie Hill died in 1970 at the age of 87.

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