Sherwin, Belle, 1868-1955

Belle Sherwin was born on March 20, 1868 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was the oldest of three daughters of Frances M. (Smith) and Henry Alden Sherwin, a founder of the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company. BS received her primary education in Cleveland, attended St. Margaret's School in Connecticut and graduated from Wellesley College in 1890. She taught history for a short period at St. Margaret's and in 1894-1895 did graduate work at Oxford University. For the next several years she taught at a girls' school in Boston. In 1899 she returned to Cleveland and began her long involvement with voluntary civic and women's organizations.

During the first years of this century BS was most active with the Visiting Nurse Association of Cleveland, serving on its board until 1924, and with the Cleveland Consumers' League, which she had organized in 1899. During World War I BS coordinated the activities of Cleveland's womens' organizations. She was named chairman of the Women's Committee of the Mayor's Advisory Board in 1917 and later in the same year was appointed Ohio Chairman of the Women's Committee of the U. S. Council of National Defense.

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