the minutes we find: “In order that we may carry out to better ad- 
     
     vantage the objects for which the Institute was organized, we shall 
     
     divide then into six divisions or classes as follows: Domestic Econ- 
     
     omy, Architecture, with special reference to heat, light, sanitation, 
     
     and ventilation. Health, embracing physiology, hygiene, calisthenics 
     
     and medicine. Floriculture and horticulture. Music and Art. Liter- 
     
     ature, education, sociology and legislation. These correspond favor- 
     
     ably to our standing committees of today. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The first officers elected at Stoney Creek were: President, 
     
     Mrs. E. D. Smith; Vice President, Mrs. J. J. Dean; Secretary, Miss 
     
     M. Nash; Treasurer, Mrs. J. H. MacNeilly. Directors: Mrs. F. M. 
     
     Carpenter, Mrs. E. Lee, Mrs. C. DeWitt. Mrs. Hoodless was Honor- 
     
     ary President and while her memory is honoured and revered as the 
     
     founder of the Women’s Institute movement, the conditions bringing 
     
     about the foundation of the organization were made possible largely 
     
     through the efforts and influence of Mr. Lee and his capable young 
     
     wife who in order to contact the women, travelled up and down the 
     
     Township in a horse-drawn vehicle, under severe winter conditions. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Adelaide Hoodless was derided by the press and on the plat- 
     
     form. She was the youngest of twelve children on a farm near St. 
     
     George, Ontario, not far from Brantford. She learned young in life 
     
     to stand up for what she believed to be right. Her husband, and 
     
     staun‘c'h supporter, was a prominent manufacturer and chairman of 
     
     the Hamilton Board of Education. In the year 1899 the first govern- 
     
     ment organizer and speaker came to Stoney Creek Women’s Instit- 
     
     ute in the person of Miss Laura Rose, who was instructor in dairying 
     
     at Ontario Agricultural College. Other groups were formed at Whit- 
     
     by and Kemble. The suggestion of “Home and Country” made by 
     
     Laura Rose, as the Institute motto, was approved and in 1903 she 
     
     designed the Women’s Institute crest from her own signet ring. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mrs. Hoodless, undaunted and unafraid, continued her work 
     
     for women. The Ontario Normal School of Domestic Science and 
     
     Art was financed largely through her efforts; this was soon too 
     
     small to accommodate all the prospective teachers who wished to 
     
     study there. Mrs. Hoodless enlisted the sympathetic support of Sir 
     
     William MacDonald, founder of the MacDonald Movement to improve 
     
     rural life, and with his donation of $200,000, MacDonald Institute 
     
     (1903) and MacDonald Hall (1904) were built on the grounds of the 
     
     Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. 
     
    
   
   
    
     It is interesting to note at this point in the history of Mrs. 
     
     Hoodless’s efforts that her greatest supporter, Sir William MacDon- 
     
     ald, was a native of Prince Edward Island. He was of Scottish descent 
     
     but was born in this Province and educated here. After serving an 
     
     apprenticeship with a merhant in Charlottetown, he moved to Mont- 
     
     real where he established The MacDonald Tobacco Company. His 
     
     greatest monuments are MacDonald College and MacDonald Institute 
     
    
   
   
    
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