Eunice Esther Hobbs Hood

Birth: February 26, 1861 Eureka, California
Death: July 4, 1941 Reno, Nevada

Role in Women’s Suffrage: Charter Member of the Nevada Equal Franchise Society, 1912; Active member of the Twentieth Century Club; Member of the suffrage ratification committee for Nevada appointed in January 1919 by Carrie Chapman Catt

HerStory: Eunice Hobbs was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Hobbs. She married Dr. William H. Hood of Battle Mountain, Nev. in Vallejo, Calif. on December 23, 1890. Eunice had a son from an earlier marriage, Harry Standerwick, and she and Dr. Hood had four more sons, William H. Hood, Jr., Arthur J. Hood, Charles A. Hood, Dwight L. Hood.

The Hoods moved to Reno in 1903. Eunice became active in civic activities, including the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Young Women’s Christian Association, Twentieth Century Club, PTA officer, and Sparks Baptist Church. She was involved in civic improvement such as beautifying empty lots and the 1912 Reno clean-up day and was vice-president of the Reno Chautauqua Association.

Eunice was a charter member of the Nevada Equal Franchise Society, second vice-president and chair of civics in the NEFS. In July 1912, Eunice was invited to meet with Rae Copley Raun and Edith Copley who were making a trans-continental automobile trip for women’s suffrage. During the busy suffrage work in 1914, Eunice and her family suffered the death of their 16-year-old son Charles Allen.

In 1918 Eunice Hood was elected a Regent for the University of Nevada, for an eight-year term.

Eunice Hood died in 1941 and is buried with her family in the Masonic Memorial Gardens, Reno, Nevada.

Researched and written by the Nevada Women’s History Project for the Nevada Commission for Women, 2020