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 about 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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