The Willows

From the Winter 2002 Federated Women's Institutes of Canada Newsletter:

In South Dumfries, Brant County, Ontario in this lovely old frame house known as “the Willows” is the birth place of Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, February 27, 1857 - here she spent her childhood, the youngest of 12 children, where, of necessity, each member of the family shared in the work of the farm and home.

In her lifetime she founded or was involved with the Young Women's  Association; the Victorian Order of Nurses; the National Council of Women; the MacDonald Institute at Guelph; the School of Household Science at MacDonald College; Ste. Anne de Bellevue, affiliated with McGill University, and of course, but not least the Women's Institutes.  Adelaide was also a pioneer advocate  of teaching Domestic Science in the Schools.

The Women's Institute was founded on February 19, 1897 and eventually spread across Canada and also to a number of countries around the world.

The Homestead was purchased by the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada in 1959 – it was restored and furnished in the period when Adelaide Hunter Hoodless lived there, a project of all the Women's Institutes in Canada. In 1939 a flag and flag pole, donated by the Scottish Women's Rural was dedicated in the Adelaide Hoodless Memorial Park at the junction of Highways 5 and 24, a half mile from the Homestead. A cairn there reads:

To commemorate the birthplace of Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, 1857 – 1910, who founded the Women's Institute, February 19, 1897, erected by Women's Institutes of Brant County, unveiled by Her Excellency Lady Tweedsmuir, October 7, 1937, 

In tribute to  Adelaide, a plaque was placed at the Homestead by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board in 1959.

The National Historic Sites and Monuments Board erected a plaque in June of 1962 proclaiming Adelaide Hunter Hoodless an eminent Canadian.

In 1979 grants were obtained and an apartment was added to the back of the Homestead, to house the Hostess/Curator.

Members from across Canada donated money to build a picnic shelter on the grounds, officially opened in 1996.

Yours For Home and Country, Ruth Fenner, Provincial Historian, British Columbia Women's Institute