Eliza Calvert Hall

Eliza Calvert was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky on February 11, 1856.  She took her grandmother’s name, Hall to use as her pen name.  She studied at the Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio.  In 1879 she was able to help with the support of her family when two of her poems were accepted by Scribner’s magazine.

In 1885 she married Major William Alexander Obenchain of Virginia.  In 1883 he became the president of Ogden College in Bowling Green.  They had four children.

Eliza, or Lida as she was known, began to work for the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and write, circulate petitions and sponsor lectures in support of suffrage.

Her first book, Aunt Jane of Kentucky was a collection of stories about rural Western Kentucky narrated by “Aunt Jane”.  It was published in 1907 and ranked in the top 6 most popular books in many cities.  She published two more story collections, a novel and a book on hand-woven coverlets in the early 1900s.

Resources: The Kentucky Museum has an online Eliza Calvert Hall exhibit.

 

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