{{Short description|American politician (1876–1963)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Knute Hill | image = Knute Hill Crop.jpg | alt = | caption = Hill in 1938 | state1 = Washington | district1 = 4th | term_start1 = March 4, 1933 | term_end1 = January 3, 1943 | predecessor1 = John William Summers | successor1 = Hal Holmes | state_house2 = Washington | district2 = 58th | term_start2 = January 10, 1927 | term_end2 = January 9, 1933 | birth_date = {{birth date|1876|7|31}} | birth_place = Creston, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1963|12|3|1876|7|31}} | death_place = Desert Hot Springs, California, U.S. | resting_place = Terrace Heights Memorial Park, Yakima, Washington, U.S. | party = Farmer–Labor {{small|(before 1932)}}<br />Democratic {{small|(after 1932)}} | other_party = Progressive {{small|(1948)}} | alma_mater = University of Wisconsin–Madison }}
'''Knute Hill''' (July 31, 1876 – December 3, 1963) was a U.S. representative from the state of Washington. He was known by the nickname "the Little Giant".<ref name="richardson">Richardson, Darcy: ''Others: Fighting Bob La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third‑party Politics in the 1920s'', pp. 272-273 (2008)</ref>
==Background== Born on a farm near Creston, Illinois to Norwegian immigrant parents,<ref> {{citation |url= https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN4D-HNP |title= United States Census, 1880 |website= FamilySearch |accessdate=March 13, 2018 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wa-grange.org/local_granges.htm |title=Washington State Grange |access-date=2009-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210110037/http://www.wa-grange.org/local_granges.htm |archive-date=2008-12-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Political career== [[File:Representative Knute Hill.jpg|thumb|left|Hill's official State House portrait, 1927]] Running as a Farmer-Labor Party candidate in 1920 and 1924, Hill unsuccessfully contested Washington's 4th congressional district. He received over 17% of the vote in the first race, and roughly 13% in the second.<ref name="richardson"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Hill, Knute |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=66236 |website=ourcampaigns.com |access-date=31 August 2025}}</ref>
Hill served as a member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 1927 until 1933.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|title=Ex-Washington Congressman Found Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28009810/knute_hill_18761963/ |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=December 7, 1963 |page=43 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = February 4, 2019 }} {{Open access}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Obit"/><ref name="richardson"/> He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000600 ''Biography of Knute Hill'' (Bioguide of the United States Congress)]</ref>
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. He was a delegate to the 1948 Progressive National Convention.<ref>{{cite news |title=3d Party Lists Its Delegates |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/874423061/?terms=%22Knute%20Hill%22&match=1 |access-date=31 August 2025 |work=Kitsap Sun |date=22 July 1948 |location=Bremerton}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Obit"/> He was interred in the Terrace Heights Memorial Park, in Yakima, Washington.<ref>[http://mas.stparchive.com/Archive/MAS/MAS12121963P05.php ''Mt Adams Sun'']</ref> Records and papers associated with his political career are maintained at the Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=H000600 ''Guide to Research Collections'' (Washington State University) ]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons}} {{CongBio|H000600}} *{{Find a Grave|6886220}} * [http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/finders/cg194.htm Washington State University Libraries] * [https://openlibrary.org/b/OL5564054M/Knute_Hill Knute Hill register of papers in the Washington State University Library]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Washington | district=4 | before=John William Summers | after=Hal Holmes | years=1933–1943 }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Knute}} Category:1876 births Category:1963 deaths Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:People from Ogle County, Illinois Category:People from Desert Hot Springs, California Category:University of Minnesota alumni Category:University of Wisconsin Law School alumni Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Washington (state) Category:Washington (state) Farmer–Laborites Category:Progressive Party (United States, 1948) politicians Category:People from DeForest, Wisconsin Category:Politicians from Dane County, Wisconsin Category:People from Red Wing, Minnesota Category:People from Prosser, Washington Category:Democratic Party members of the Washington House of Representatives Category:20th-century United States representatives Category:20th-century members of the Washington State Legislature