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years before we had a Women's In- ' stitfite'l_7there was organized in the , county.'mainly through the efforts nndjnfluence of Public School In- spector Joseph H. S. Smith, the farmers Institute. Mr. Smith had as right hand man Mr. Erland Lee, a clever, broad-minded young farm- er of 'Saltfleet township. . . .To Mr. Lee we are indebted for the Wo-l men's Institute for, while we recog- nize Mrs; Headless. as' our rounder, 1 yet it WAS Mr. Lee who made con- regenehossible!' In the autumn of 1896, Erlnnd Lee (who had been a student at the Ontario Agricultural College) at- tended the annual meeting of the EXperimental Union in Guelph. There he heard the address of Mrs. John Hd'odless ,of Hamilton on the . need of instruction in sewing and domestic science in the schools. 'I_'he zealous lady avowed that training boys and girls alike was wrong. Girls ought of right to be educated and made fit for that sphere of life for which they Were destined---- heme-making. So impressed was Mr. Lee by the speaker's viewpomt that he and Major F. M. Carpenter made hold to invite Mrs; Hoodless to speak 'along the Same lines at the Farm- ers' Institute open meeting to be held at Stoney Creek in January fol- lowing. So well did the speaker make her points that , even. the hard-boiled men were convinced. ? flcouragedby her reception, Adel- fldeHoadlelss made bold to suggest an o'gamzati'onj of. women Similar to" that'insti'tuted :for; men by In- tbectur'amitigi'hephmrman recom- Marmara-meeting of farm- Erland Lée rWas Only Man When the protagonist of a fair deal for feminine farmfolk , ap- peared at Squire's Hall, Stoney Creek, on the night of February 19, 1897, she was greeded by 101 women and one maul--Erland Lee, who was to take the chair. The able and elo-i quent speaker (who had been born] on a farm near St. George) drew' attention to the fact that if the men, in their institute, profited by consultation and study, learned how to care for and raise better stock, why couldn't their women help in the work for betterment of farm and home by aiding home' craft and mothercraft. Sensing their responsibility and opportunity as home'makers, the 101 'women de- cided to make a beginning by form- ing "The Women's'Department in Domestic Economy in affiliation with the Farmers' Institute of South Wentworth" (a cumbrous it mean- ingful title). At theyery next meet- ing the name was changed to the "Women's Institute of Saltfleet," and later', when other women's un- its were founded, the body became the "Stoney Creek Women's Insti- tute." The broadening-out process took on promotion of improved con; ditions of the home and farmstead, including thephysical, intellectual,