Hetty Green, byname of Henrietta Howland Robinson Green, ne Henrietta Howland

Robinson (bornNov. 21, 1834, New Bedford, Mass., U.S.died July 3, 1916, New York,
N.Y.), financier who was reputedly the wealthiest woman of her time in the United States.
Henrietta Howland Robinson was connected on the maternal Howland side to one of the great
mercantile families of New England. She was reared in a home of Quaker austerity, however, and
schooled privately. In 1865 both her father and a maternal aunt died, leaving her in their wills a total
of about $10,000,000 in outright bequests and trust funds. Her suit to secure her aunts entire estate
on the basis of a deathbed will dragged on for five years, until the will was adjudged a forgery in
1871. In July 1867 she had married Edward H. Green, but by mutual consent their finances were
kept separate, and she managed hers with single-minded dedication both before and after his death
in 1902.
Both her father and her grandfather had steeped Hetty Green in business and finance from
childhood, and she devoted her life to increasing her fortune. She became a major and feared
operator on Wall Street, where, in addition to extensive holdings in railroad and other stocks and in
government bonds, she maintained a considerable liquid fund for lending purposes. In the aftermath
of the panic of 1907, a number of major investors found themselves in her debt. She also invested
heavily in mortgages and real estate, particularly in Chicago.
As her fortune grew, Hetty Green, sometimes called the witch of Wall Street, continued to live with
her son and daughter in inexpensive lodgings, avoiding any display of wealth and virtually allsociety.
Her eccentricities made her a favourite subject for newspaper gossip, and all manner of stories were
circulated concerning her miserliness. Perhaps the most widely repeated was that of her supposed
refusal to hire a doctor to treat her sons injured leg, resulting eventually in anamputation. She often
appeared publicly in shabby dress, and she was known to seek medical treatment for herself at
charity clinics. She lived for much of her later life in a small apartment inHoboken, New Jersey. On
her death, Green left an estate of more than $100,000,000.