creator:

Hill, E. Howard (1908-2002)

title:

Papers

dates:

1923-2001, n.d.

extent:

8.22 linear feet (16 document boxes and 1 oversize box)

collection number:

RS 21/7/44

repository:

University Archives, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

access:

Open for research

publication rights:

Consult Head, Special Collections Department

preferred citation:

E. Howard Hill  Papers, RS 21/7/44, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

Biographical note

Edwin Howard Hill was born in Minburn (Dallas County), Iowa, May 11, 1908.  He graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. (1930) in animal husbandry.  During the summer of 1930, he traveled to Europe with his brother Clarence to visit farms, agricultural colleges, and livestock shows before returning to Iowa to farm.

Back in Iowa, Hill became a successful farmer and an active member of his community.  From 1931-1947, Hill served continuously as a member of the Washington Township Consolidated school board.  For ten years, he was vice president of the Minburn Cooperative Elevator.  In 1941, he was one of a commission of five sent to South America to study agricultural conditions and returned to Chile in 1962 as a member of a mission on agricultural reforms.  Hill was agricultural representative in the Iowa Development Commission and the Iowa Civil Defense Committee.  He was a member of the National Livestock Meat Board, the board of trustees of the Iowa 4-H Club Foundation, the board of directors of the Iowa State University Foundation, the board of directors of F.S. Inc., the board of trustees of the Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, the Agriculture Committee of the greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, and a trustee of the Minburn Methodist Church.  Additionally, Hill served in the American Good Government Society, on the Iowa Committee on Resettlement of Displaced Persons, on the Humane Slaughter Committee, and with the Iowa Institute of Cooperation.  Hill was also one of the founders of both Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, and F.S. Inc., a regional farm-supply cooperative affiliated with the Farm Bureau.

Hill served on the board of directors for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and became its vice president in 1943.  The Federation named him president in 1947, and he served in this office until retiring in 1963.  Following his retirement, Hill devoted his time to farming, specializing in cattle and hogs. 

Throughout his lifetime, Howard Hill was the recipient of several distinguished awards.  The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation named him Master Swine Producer in 1945 and Master Farmer in 1946.  He also received the 4-H Leadership Recognition Award, an achievement award from the Iowa Soil Conservation Society, and the Honorary Iowa Farmer Degree from the Iowa Future Farmers of America in 1964.  

Collection description

The E. Howard Hill Papers (1923-2001, n.d.) contain biographical information, correspondence, approximately 400 speech manuscripts, files on the history and activities of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, files relating to agricultural missions to South America (1962) and Eastern Asia (1963), clippings, and photographs.  The bulk of the material is Hill’s correspondence as President of the Iowa Farm Bureau.  Letters of interest include those from Secretaries of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan and Ezra T. Benson; U.S. Senators Allen J. Ellender, Guy M. Gillette, Bourke Hickenlooper, and Jack Miller; and U.S. Representatives James E. Bromwell, Paul Cunnningham, James I. Dolliver, H. R. Gross, Ben F. Jensen, John Kyl, Fred Schwengel, and Leonard G. Wolf.  Other correspondents include Allan B. Kline and Charles B. Shuman.  Hill’s reaction to an editorial in Wallace’s Farmer related to the performance of Shuman is also in the collection.  Most of these letters related to farm policy supported or opposed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa Farm Bureau.  Particular issues include price controls, soil conservation, interstate roads, the Jensen-Mundt Alcohol Fuel bill, and the Animal Disease Research Lab located in Ames.

Hill’s annual addresses to the State Convention of the Iowa Farm Bureau, 1948-1963, are a major portion of the collection.  The topics of these speeches often include the promotion of agriculture, international trade, price controls, and reapportionment.  Transcripts of speeches by Hill to civic groups and other organizations on the reapportionment of the Iowa Legislature are in the collection.  There are also photographs and papers related to the Farm Bureau’s agricultural missions to South America in 1962 and Asia in 1963.  The collection contains transcripts of Hill’s testimony before Senate and House Committees of Agriculture.  These include House testimony on the Granger Farm Bill in 1950, and price controls in 1951.  The testimony for the Senate is related to a farm policy bill and land adjustment in 1961, sponsored by Senator Bourke Hickenlooper.

Papers related to Hill’s work on the American Good Government Committee, Humane Slaughter Committee (1958-1962), Iowa Committee on the resettlement of Displaced Persons, Iowa Institute of Cooperation (1947-1951), and the Iowa Development Commission (1954-1960) are present as well.  At the state level, Hill concerned himself with the issues of reapportionment, daylight savings time in Des Moines, and the promotion of agricultural products, with significant correspondence to Representative L. O. Weston and Ray Cunningham.  The largest amount of personal correspondence is with William W. Waymack of Dallas County, Iowa.  Particular issues include a trip to Waymack’s farm by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, which never materialized, and the Atomic Energy Commission on which Waymack served.  Other personal correspondence of note is with V. B. Hamilton of Hampton, Iowa.  See Appendix I for a list of other correspondents. 

The collection also includes a scrapbook created by Hill’s daughter, Marjorie Joslin, and documents both his personal and professional life.