[1] Born on a farm near Creston, Illinois to Norwegian immigrant parents,[2] Hill moved to De Forest, Wisconsin in 1877 and later to Red Wing, Minnesota in 1889.

[3] Running as a Farmer-Labor Party candidate in 1924 Hill unsuccessfully contested the 4th congressional district seat in Washington.

[5] Hill was Superintendent of the Uintah-Ouray Indian agency at Fort Duchesne, Utah from 1943 until his resignation on March 31, 1944.

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.

Knute Hill died of a heart attack in his cabin in Desert Hot Springs, California.