Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) an insignificant amount.

1837		Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) 21 Mar. 2/2: He had seen Naked Truth run ‘five hours on a stretch’ [...] and never ‘fag a hooter’.
1848		‘Dow, Jr’ Short Patent Sermons i 6: Politicians don’t care a hooter, so long as their own selfish ends are obtained.
1859		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (2nd edn) 202: Hooter. Probably a corruption of iota. Common in New York in such phrases as ‘I don’t care a hooter for him’.
1864		Letters of Major Jack Downing 26 May in R.H. Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) I 448/1: Linkin says he warn’t skeered a hooter, but was only rarin mad.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 17: How could I get just one hooter to make me feel that life would be worth living.