Hetty Green - The Witch of Wall Street

Excerpt taken from Strange Stories, True Stories and Tales from Hollywood

Hetty Green, also known as "The Witch of Wall Street" by the press, who sadly lacked personal hygiene. Sending an odious stench through the air as she walked. With her long black dresses years out of style which were turning green from lack of washing, and crusted fingernails.

Not wanting to see a doctor for a hernia she'd had for 20 years, because the fee was too outrageous for her taste, only going to a doctor out of sheer desperation and pain.

Recognised by most men as "the richest woman in America", and there her nickname was given "The Witch of Wall Street". Inheriting $7 million from her late father and aunt in 1865, a massive fortune in those days. Inflation was little to nothing except for the Civil War. By the time she was 50 she'd accrued a $200 million dollar fortune which would be around $17 billion in today's money.

Early Beginnings

Born Henrietta Howland Robinson, in New Bedford, Massachusetts on 21 November, 1834, into an old established colonial family. Her grandfather made his fortune in the whaling industry, and her father quickly followed, increasing the family wealth 20 times over.

School days for Hetty didn't last long, she preferred the company of her father as he went about his daily business. She would spend hours after dinner reading the financial pages of the New York and Boston papers.

Presented to Society

As a young woman Hetty was very pretty, and was presented to Boston and New York society at the age of 20. She was given a wardrobe full of clothes worth $1200 by her father, but she decided to sell her clothes on and invest the money in the stock market. Depending highly on the cousin she was staying with in New York to see to her needs.

Mother's Death

Her mother passed away when Hetty was 25 leaving her estate to her father and nothing to her. Not wanting to jeopardise her father's inheritance, Hetty decided not to contest her mother's will. However, this left Hetty with a rich father, only 50 years old, virile and now open to marriage. Moving to New York her father joined a new shipping partnership, and swiftly sold his share of the partnership for $5 million when prices started to inflate at the end of the Civil War.

New York

Hetty pursued her father to New York thinking he would remarry and her inheritance would be left to a new family.

At that time her maiden aunt Sylvia Howland, reputed to be the richest lady in New Bedford was talking about altering her will and leaving most of her estate to charity, friends and relatives, with no mention of Hetty. This news terrified Hetty, that she went to work on her aunt so that she would be left all the money in her aunt's will. It wasn’t until aunt Sylvia died two years later that Hetty discovered her maiden aunt's will had been changed and her $2 million inheritance had been seriously reduced.

In that same year, Hetty's father died and left her $1 million plus the income from a $5 million trust. She was only 31 years old at the time.

Hetty was so disgusted over her maiden aunt's estate, feeling it should have all been left to her that she decided to sue. She presented the court with a forged will, and her claim was swiftly turned down. This was Hetty's first exposure to the public and turned out to be a highly unfavourable one, as the press reported the case all over the country.

Marriage

Before her father died, Hetty was engaged to a man 14 years her senior, called Edward Green, a businessman from Vermont. He had made his fortune in the Philippine silk trade. She married Green two years after her father died, while fighting the case for her maiden aunt's estate.

Once the court had proved Hetty had forged Sylvia's will, she fled to London with her new husband to keep clear of the law. It was in London that she gave birth to her first child, a son named Edward Howland Robinson Green, who would later be known as Ned or The Colonel. In 1870 she gave birth to her daughter named Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Robinson Green, who would always be called Sylvia.

The Greens kept both of their fortunes separate and signed a prenuptial agreement, which was done at Hetty's insistence, before they married. In London they lived very elegantly, only spending her husband's money.

Returning Home

The family moved back to Bellows Falls in 1875 once the statute of limitations had run out on her will-forging charges.

By this time her self-neglect had started to show, with dirty hands, clothes and fingernails. Hetty held onto her purse strings to such an extent that her children were sent to school in cast-offs, in the winter paper would be put into her son's jackets and shoes to keep him warm.

Even though her wealth was in the millions, according to today's currency. Her days would be spent fighting people over money.

Mean Hetty

Her meanness toward her son really showed through when he injured his knee in a sledding accident, when he was only 9 years old. The cost of medical treatment agitated Hetty so much she refused to get a doctor to help. This left the boy lame until he reached his teenage years when gangrene set in and his leg had to be amputated above the knee.

More Wealth Made

When Hetty returned to the United States she took a 6 hour train ride from her home in Bellows Falls to the New York Stock Exchange. There she made even more money on the Stock Exchange. All of Wall Street would watch this crumpled dirty old lady place her money in particular stocks such as the railroad, and make money nearly every time.

Her husband had lost nearly all of his $2 million fortune in the stock markets, and Hetty refused to maintain the household. She moved herself and her 2 children to New York where she could be closer to what she really loved, the stock market.

By now her main business interest lay in mortgages, such as churches. She didn't mind foreclosing if they couldn't keep up with their payments. Her money lending would stretch to bankers and brokerage houses.

Dodging Tax Collectors

Refusing to pay tax, her time was spent dodging tax collectors, living in rooms in Hoboken which protected her from the New York tax collectors. For a number of years she stayed in cheap, cold water flats that were furnished and rent was no more than $22 a month.

Anything that would be classed as comfortable would be out of the question. Even her lunch, a can of oatmeal, was heated on a radiator in someone else's office.

Hetty to the Rescue

Even though she was a figure of fun to most people, she was also a shrewd business woman. Putting cash aside for quick loans. She saved J.P. Morgan in 1907, bailing them out with a $1.1 million cheque, taking short-term revenue bonds as payment.

Bringing her children up to be just as frugal as she was.

Her Later Life

By the age of 77 Hetty came down with pneumonia. The press reported The Witch of Wall Street was at death's door. When the pneumonia passed it left her feeling a lot weaker, and living in her son's townhouse.

Her Death

She died on July 3, 1916 just before her 82nd birthday, in her son's house. Leaving an estimated $200 million fortune. Her life was lived in the pursuit of money, not being frivolous to herself or her children, and giving nothing away.