Knute Hill


Knute Hill was a U.S. Representative from the state of Washington. He was known by the nickname "the Little Giant".

Background

Born on a farm near Creston, Illinois to Norwegian immigrant parents, Hill moved to De Forest, Wisconsin in 1877 and later to Red Wing, Minnesota in 1889. He attended both Red Wing Seminary and the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. He graduated from the law department of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1906. He was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced law in Milwaukee and Eau Claire, Wisconsin from 1908 to 1910. He moved to Prosser, Washington in 1911. He taught in the public and high schools of Benton County, Washington from 1911 to 1922. He also engaged in agricultural pursuits and was a founding member of the Washington State Grange.

Political career

Running as a Farmer-Labor Party candidate, in 1924 Hill unsuccessfully contested the 4th congressional district seat in Washington. He received above 13% of the votes cast.
Hill served as member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 1927 until 1933. Hill was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and to the four succeeding Congresses. He represented the State of Washington's 4th congressional district from March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1943. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress.
Hill was Superintendent of the Uintah-Ouray Indian agency at Fort Duchesne, Utah from 1943 until his resignation on March 31, 1944. Hill was a radio commentator in Spokane, Washington from 1944 to 1946. He was an unsuccessful Independent Progressive candidate for election in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress. Hill served as a consulting appraiser and information clerk in the Bureau of Reclamation, Columbia Basin Project, Ephrata, Washington, from March 1949 until his retirement in 1951.

Later years

Knute Hill died of a heart attack in his cabin in Desert Hot Springs, California. He was interred in the Terrace Heights Memorial Park, in Yakima, Washington. Records and papers associated with his political career are maintained at the Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.