Eliza Calvert Hall, 1856-1935
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Historical Marker #2240 in Bowling Green honors Kentucky author and women's suffragist, Eliza (Lida) Calvert (Obenchain) Hall. As an author, Hall wrote primarily short stories, the most well known collection being "Aunt Jane of Kentucky." Published in 1907, that work was publically praised by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Lida Hall was recruited to the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA) by Laura Clay. In 1900, Hall accepted the position of press superintendent for KERA. In this role, she was responsible for keeping Kentucky newspapers supplied with ready-to-print material on the women's suffrage movement. Much of the material submitted to the newspapers was Hall’s own commentary. In her role as press superintendent Hall was remarkably successful, publishing more than 500 articles in Kentucky newspapers in one year. The one newspaper in which she failed to obtain space for her articles was the "Louisville Courier-Journal," whose editor, Henry Watterson, was unrelenting in his opposition to women's suffrage.
In addition to her commentaries on women's suffrage written for local newspapers, Hall used many of her short stories to encode suffrage arguments. Most who read "Aunt Jane of Kentucky" enjoyed the seemingly simple mountain wisdom of Aunt Jane without being fully aware of the political subtext contained within the stories.
Hall grew up in Bowling Green, where her father, Thomas Calvert, was a prominent businessman who held a position with the Bank of Kentucky. Thomas Calvert's success allowed him to build a mansion on Vinegar Hill in Bowling Green. When Lida was still a teenager, Thomas was accused of embezzling money and disappeared. He would not see his family again for thirteen years. The mansion and property on Vinegar Hill were liquidated and Lida, her mother, and siblings experienced sudden poverty. The mansion eventually became Warren College and then Ogden College. The man whom Lida Hall eventually married, William Alexander Obenchain, became Ogden College’s President in 1883.
