Margaret Elizabeth Scholl Hood was born July 7, 1833, the only child of Daniel and Maria Susan Thomas Scholl. A lifelong resident of Frederick County, Margaret lived most of her life at Manchester Farm on New Design Road. Her formal education began in a school operated by Hiram Winchester on North Market Street. She later attended Thorndale, a boarding school in Carroll County, Maryland. From 1847 to 1849, she attended the Frederick Female Seminary as a boarding student, graduating in 1849 at age 16. On Oct. 21, 1873, she married James Mifflin Hood, a native of Baltimore who was a carriage maker by trade.
Interested in civic affairs, her church and education, Margaret was a charter member of several local organizations, including the Art Club, the Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc., the Home for the Aged, and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Home for the Feeble Minded in Owings Mills, Maryland. A believer in responsible stewardship, she prided herself in being well-informed on all the activities of her church, now the Evangelical Reformed Church, United Church of Christ. The schools, colleges, theological seminaries, and orphan’s homes sponsored by her church, and the church’s home and foreign missionary operations were all objects of her philanthropy.
To help with the establishment of Hood College, she gave $25,000 to institute the College’s endowment and made provisions for the purchase of the land on which the College is now built. In her will, she gave an additional $30,000, which was the impetus for President Joseph Henry Apple to begin building Shriner Hall and Alumnae Hall. On Oct. 31, 1912, a ceremony was held to announce the renaming of the College to Hood College in recognition of her support and generosity.
She died in Baltimore on Jan. 13, 1913, and is buried with her husband and her parents in Frederick’s Mount Olivet Cemetery.
