Hetty Green

Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916) was an American businesswoman and financier who, during the Gilded Age, was called "the richest woman in America." People who knew her well admired her as the "Queen of Wall Street" because she freely lent money at fair interest rates to financiers and city governments during financial panics. Her strict discipline in those crises helped her build a fortune as a financier at a time when nearly all major financiers were men. A highly successful investor with a Wall Street office, she stood out as a woman in a male-dominated field. She refused to take part in New York City high society, flashy spending, or business partnerships. Seen as eccentric and blunt with the press, she was actually a pioneer of value investing. During the Panic of 1907, her willingness to make low-interest loans from her well-maintained cash reserves helped rescue Wall Street, New York City, and the U.S. economy when banks were failing. Still, in her widowhood, she was viewed as a strange miser, always dressed in black, and sometimes sensationally called the "Witch of Wall Street." Later, the Guinness Book of World Records even named her the "greatest miser" for a time. Common stories about her included refusing to buy expensive clothes or pay for hot water, and wearing a single dress until it wore out. More recent assessments see her as perhaps eccentric, but mostly out of step with the excesses of the Gilded Age wealthy and the expectations for women of her class.

**Early childhood**

Henrietta ("Hetty") Howland Robinson was born in 1834 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Edward Mott Robinson and Abby Howland, the richest whaling family in the city. Her family were Quakers who owned a large whaling fleet and also profited from the China trade. She had a younger brother who died as an infant. At age two, Green was sent to live with her grandfather, Gideon Howland, and her Aunt Sylvia. She read stock quotations and commerce reports for her grandfather and picked up some of his business methods. At ten, she entered Eliza Wing's boarding school in Sandwich, Massachusetts. After Gideon's death, her father became head of the Isaac Howland whaling firm, and she began to copy his business practices. Because of Gideon's and her father's influence, and possibly because her mother was often ill, she was close to her father and was reading financial papers to him by age six. She learned to read ledgers and trade commodities. At thirteen, Green became the family bookkeeper. She went with her father to countinghouses, storerooms, commodities traders, and stockbrokers. In the evening, she read the news to him.

In her late teens, Green attended several boarding schools and finishing schools, including Friends Academy and Anna Cabot Lowell's finishing school. At the same time, she helped her father manage the family business. The main thread through this period was her open rejection of the social rules for women at the time, especially wealthy heiresses. She cared little about her appearance, preferring old clothes, and ignored the daily grooming that young women did. Her behavior frustrated her mother and Aunt Sylvia, who worried about the future of a wealthy heiress who felt more at home on New Bedford's docks than mingling with her social class. When Green turned 20, her Aunt Sylvia pushed her to find a husband. Reluctantly, she moved to New York to live with a cousin of her mother's, Henry Grinnell. In New York, she mixed with high society and attended many lavish balls but showed little interest in finding a husband. Instead, she spent much of her time eavesdropping on men discussing the latest Wall Street news. Her relatives were annoyed when she returned several months early to New Bedford with no wedding prospects. Her father was the only one who could not hide his delight when he learned that Green had spent only $200 of her $1,200 budget, investing the rest in high-quality bonds.

Within a few years of her return to New Bedford, Green's father left the whaling business and moved to New York City. His timing was good, as petroleum use soon wiped out demand for whale oil. Green spent the next six years traveling between New York City and New Bedford. In New York, she helped her father with new business and investments; in New Bedford, she pestered her Aunt Sylvia to make sure she stayed the sole beneficiary of her will. The constant fights over her aunt's will led to a long court battle that haunted Green for the rest of her life. Green's mother, Abby Robinson, died on February 21, 1860, but her $100,000 estate went to her husband, except for an $8,000 house for Green. While living in New York City, Hetty met her future husband, Edward Henry Green of Vermont. By age 44, Edward was a partner in Russell Sturgis & Company and had become a millionaire from his business in the Far East. Her father encouraged the marriage but with the clear condition that Edward would not inherit Hetty's money. The will stated it was to be "free from the debts, control or interference of any such husband." With Hetty's inheritance protected, her father supported the marriage, worried about his declining health and Hetty's ability to manage the family business without him.