Thanks to the Ontario Women's Institute Story published in 1972, I know that Hoodless, who was of Irish stock, was born in Peel County in 1857. She was the last child in David Hunter's farm family of 13. He died months before she was born. Hoodless shared in farm tasks, was brought up in the uncompromising Presbyterian work and worship ethic, went to German school in South Dumfries Township, and may have attended a "ladies college" for a short time. But all in all she did not have much formal schooling.

Domestic science classes were popular, but they needed more trained teachers. So, with the financial assistance of Lord Strathcona (Hoodless knew everybody), the Ontario Normal School for Domestic Science and Art was established in Hamilton. The Ontario government came on board when the school had to be expanded, but Hoodless had to raise the money to contruct a suitable building. She went after Montreal tobacco millionaire Sir William Macdonald, who gave $125,000 to establish Macdonald Institute on the campus of the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph as well as Macdonald College at St. Anne de Bellvue, Que.

Hoodless lives on in many ways. One of the most historically visible is the Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Homestead in St. George, which was acquired by the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada, restored to Hoodless's time period, and opened as a museum on a 2/ 1/ 2-acre site in 1959. Many thousands of visitors from all over the world have been there.