HAWGOOD, BELLE DIBLEY (20 July 1869-2 Feb. 1941) made an important regional contribution to botany by collecting approximately 1,000 herbarium specimens, most from northern Ohio, over a period of more than forty years. Hawgood was born on a farm in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, now South Milwaukee, to Ebeneezer and Isabella Dibley. When she was a teenager, her mother taught her to botanize. In Βι¶ΉΣ³» 1890, her mother took ill and died, leaving Belle to take over household duties on the farmstead. She married Capt. Arthur Harrison Hawgood, who was in the shipping business, on 5 May 1892 and moved with him to Cleveland. Soon she began collecting plants in various parts of northeastern Ohio, eventually building up a large berbarium. Hawgood also traveled to various parts of the U.S. and Europe with her husband. She worked diligently on her collection over the years, using a small microscope and a copy of Gray's Botany and other botanical works to identify her plant specimens, which were meticulously mounted on cardboard. Hawgood was president of the WOMEN'S ART CLUB OF CLEVELAND (1927-28) and late in her life also joined in the activities of the Cleveland Natural Science Club. Hawgood died of a stroke in 1941. Her herbarium, including a large number of specimens from northern Ohio, was eventually donated to the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.
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