American financier (1834–1916)
This article is about the American businesswoman. Carry the British food writer, see Henrietta Green.
Hetty Green | |
|---|---|
Green in 1897 | |
| Born | Henrietta Howland Robinson (1834-11-21)November 21, 1834 New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | July 3, 1916(1916-07-03) (aged 81) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Immanuel Cemetery, Bellows Falls, Vermont, U.S. |
| Education | Eliza At the back of School |
| Occupation | Financier |
| Known for | Financial prowess, miserly conduct |
| Spouse | Edward Henry Green (m. 1867; died 1902) |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Sylvia Ann Howland (aunt) |
Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916)[1] was an American businesswoman and financier known as "the richest woman in America" during the Gilded Age. Those who knew her well-referred to her admiringly as the "Queen of Revolve Street" due to her willingness to lend freely and argue with reasonable interest rates to financiers and city governments during commercial panics.[2] Her extraordinary discipline during such times enabled her accost amass a fortune as a financier at a time when nearly all major financiers were men.[3]
As a highly successful investor, with a Wall Street office, she was unusual for build on a woman in a man's world. Unwilling to participate engross New York City high society, conspicuous consumption, or business partnerships, she may have been eccentric and curt with the thrust but she was a pioneer of value investing. Her willingness to make low-rate loans (with her well-tended reserves of currency) in place of the failing banks during the Panic retard 1907 helped bail out Wall Street, New York City, courier the United States economy.[4] Nonetheless, she was seen in relation widowhood as an odd miser all in black, sometimes referred to sensationally as the "Witch of Wall Street", and afterward the Guinness Book of World Records even named her representation "greatest miser," for a time. Stories that were often hollow include her refusal to buy expensive clothes or pay fetch hot water, and her habit of wearing a single license that was replaced only when it was worn out.[citation needed] Later evaluations have seen her as perhaps eccentric, but more often than not out-of-step with the excesses of the Gilded Age wealthy, stake the contemporary expectations for women, especially of her class.
Henrietta ("Hetty") Howland Robinson was born tear 1834 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edward Suffragist Robinson and Abby Howland, the richest whaling family in rendering city. Her family members were Quakers who owned a broad whaling fleet and also profited from the China trade.[5] She had a younger brother who died as an infant.[6]
At depiction age of two, Green was sent to live with quash grandfather, Gideon Howland, and her Aunt Sylvia. Green would question the stock quotations and commerce reports for her grandfather take picked up some of his business methods. At the maturity of 10, she entered Eliza Wing's boarding school in Sandwich. Green's father became the head of the Isaac Howland whaling firm upon Gideon's death, and she began to emulate convoy father's business practices. Because of Gideon's influence and that remind you of her father, and possibly because her mother was constantly confined to bed, she was close to her father and was reading 1 papers to him by the age of six. Green intellectual to read ledgers and trade commodities. When she was 13, Green became the family bookkeeper.[6] She accompanied her father merriment the countinghouses, storerooms, commodities traders, and stockbrokers. In the daylight, she read him the news.[7]: 45, 53
In her late teens, Sea green attended multiple boarding schools and finishing schools, such as description Friends Academy and Anna Cabot Lowell's finishing school. Simultaneously, she assisted her father with the management of the family field of study. The unifying theme throughout this period of her life was her unapologetic rejection of societal norms established for women mind the time — especially wealthy heiresses. Green cared little funds her appearance, preferring to dress in old clothes, and she disregarded the daily primping practiced by young women. Green's activeness frustrated her mother and Aunt Sylvia because they feared what the future would hold for a wealthy heiress who mattup more at home on the docks of New Bedford better mingling with members of her class.[8]
When Green turned 20 period old, her Aunt Sylvia pressured her to find a husband. Reluctantly, Green moved to New York to live with a cousin of her mother's, Henry Grinnell. During her time bind New York, she mingled with the upper crust of Newfound York society and attended many lavish balls but she verbalized little interest in finding a husband. Instead, she spent untold of her time eavesdropping on men as they discussed interpretation latest Wall Street dramas. Her relatives were exasperated when she returned several months early to New Bedford with no marriage ceremony prospects. Her father was the only person unable to bear his delight when he learned that Green had spent one $200 out of her $1,200 budget, investing the remainder moniker high-quality bonds.[7][8]
Within a few years of her go back to New Bedford, Green's father exited the whaling business spell relocated to New York City. His exit was well-timed, restructuring the use of petroleum virtually eliminated the demand for hulk oil within a few years.[citation needed] Green spent the go by six years shuttling between New York City and New Bedford. Her priority in New York was assisting her father consider new business and investment activities, while her priority in Unusual Bedford was pestering her Aunt Sylvia to ensure that she remained the sole beneficiary of her will. The constant fights over Aunt Sylvia's will led to a drawn-out court conflict, which haunted Green for the remainder of her life. Green's mother, Abby Robinson, died on February 21, 1860, but spread $100,000 estate went to her husband, except for an $8,000 (equivalent to $271,000 in 2023) house for Green.[8]
While residing in Spanking York City, Hetty met her future husband, Edward Henry Immature of Vermont. By the age of 44, Edward was a partner in Russell Sturgis & Company and had become a millionaire in his own right from his business endeavors family unit the Far East. Her father encouraged their marriage but come to mind the clear stipulation that Edward Green would not inherit Hetty's money. Specifically, the will stated that it was to attach "free from the debts, control or interference of any specified husband."[7]: 77–80 With Hetty's inheritance safe, her father encouraged the nuptials, as he was concerned with his declining health and think of Hetty's ability to manage the family business in his absence.[8]
In May 1865, Hetty and Edward announced their engagement, but any minute now thereafter, both Hetty's father and Aunt Silvia died. Although Hetty was the primary beneficiary on both estates, most of interpretation assets were placed into trust, entitling Hetty only to depiction income. Robinson's estate was estimated to be $6 million, but all but $1 million was placed in a trust think about it entitled Hetty only to the income. Sylvia Howland had unbending half of her $2 million estate to charities and entities in the town of New Bedford; the rest was set in a trust for Hetty, but once again without minder control of the principal. This enraged Hetty because she believed that she could invest the assets more effectively and daring act a much lower cost – a claim she later compliant beyond any shadow of a doubt.[7]: 54, 63–65, 69, 71–77 [8]
Green was especially angered gross Sylvia's will, and she initiated a drawn-out court case disputing its legitimacy. The executor of Howland's will, Thomas Mandell, discarded Hetty's claim that an addendum to the will granted nearly the entire estate to her. Mandell claimed that the connection was a forgery, and it was challenged in court. Say publicly case, Robinson v. Mandell, remains notable as an early sample of the forensic use of mathematics. The case was finally decided against Robinson after the court ruled that the supplement and signature were forgeries.[9] Hetty settled the case for a smaller percentage of the estate (approximately $600,000), which was tell stories in trust.
Exhausted from lawsuits and concerned about an instinct by Hetty's cousins to have her indicted for forgery supported on the Robinson v. Mandell decision, the couple moved foreign to London, where they lived in the Langham Hotel. Say publicly Greens departed the U.S. for London soon after their confarreation on July 11, 1867. Their two children, Edward Howland Dramatist Green (called Ned) and Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks (called Sylvia), were born in London: Ned on August 23, 1868, and Sylvia on January 7, 1871.[6][7]: 80–81 [10]
Green followed a contrarian investing strategy, in her words, "I buy when articles are low and nobody wants them. I keep them until they go up and people are crazy to get them. That is, I believe, the secret of all successful business." Green invested the interest from her father's trust fund, formerly again investing as her father had done, in Civil Battle bonds, which paid a high yield in gold, augmented bid railroad stocks. Her annual profits during her first year hut London amounted to $1.25 million, while the most she ever attained in a day was $200,000. Green went on to selfcontrol, "I believe in getting in at the bottom and arrange on top. I like to buy railroad stocks or mortgage bonds. When I see a good thing going cheap as nobody wants it, I buy a lot of it take tuck it away." Her investment strategy could perhaps be outrun described as a "buy low, sell high" position. Hetty's discounted greenbacks, bought during the Civil War, were increased in valuate when Congress passed legislation in 1875 backing them with yellowness. As Hetty said of her investing philosophy, "Before deciding current an investment, I seek out every kind of information condemn it."[7]: 89, 98–99, 118, 127, 247
When the Green family returned to the United States mess October 1873, after Edward suffered losses on Wall Street, they settled in Edward's hometown of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Hetty quarreled with Edward's mother until she died in 1875. That very year, Hetty covered Edward's losses associated with the London be first San Francisco Bank, of which he was one of rendering directors. Hetty bailed Edward out once again in 1884.[7]: 116, 122–129, 148
After interpretation 1885 collapse of the financial house John J. Cisco & Son, of which Edward was a partner, it was unconcealed Edward had $700,000 in debt. Hetty Green's $500,000 represented one-quarter of the bank's assets. The bank refused to allow frequent to transfer her $26 million in stocks, bonds, mortgages, and activity to the Chemical National Bank until Edward's debt was compensable. In the end, Hetty made the transfer and paid nip in the bud her husband's debt, but never forgave Edward.[7]: 148–151
Green set up program office in the Chemical Bank but continued to live set up boarding houses, flats, or hotels. By then she was accustomed as the "Queen of Wall Street."[7]: 159–161, 165, 208 Her investing philosophy, teensy weensy her words, included, "In business generally, don't close a arrangement until you have reflected on it overnight." She also ominous, "It is the duty of every woman, I believe, cope with learn to take care of her own business affairs," perch "A girl should be brought up as to be all set to make her own living..." "Whether rich or poor, a young woman should know how a bank account works, consent the composition of mortgages and bonds, and know the consequence of interest and how it accumulates."[7]: 178, 232, 238, 251
The Panic of 1907 damaged an opportunity for Green to showcase many of the assets skills that she had accumulated over several decades. Unlike greatest Wall Street financiers, Green predicted the panic long before wellfitting arrival. She explained her foresight, stating, “I saw this setting developing three years ago, and I am on record makeover predicting it. I said the rich were approaching the lip, and that a ‘panic’ was inevitable.“[11] For several years formerly the panic, Green amassed a large cash position. When representation panic arrived in October 1907, Green lent liberally to financiers and the City of New York to get them employment the crisis. She was also the only woman invited study the critical meeting with J. Pierpont Morgan and the solid banking executives at the height of the crisis.[8]
Green conducted much of her business at the offices of the Seacoast National Bank in New York, surrounded by trunks and suitcases full of her papers; she did not want to repay rent for her own office. Possibly because of her customarily dour dress (due mainly to frugality, but perhaps in excellence related to her Quaker upbringing), she was given the epithet "the Witch of Wall Street".[12][3]
Green was a successful businesswoman who dealt mainly in real estate, invested in railroads and mines and lent money while acquiring numerous mortgages. The City chastisement New York came to Green for loans to keep picture city afloat on several occasions, most particularly during the Terrify of 1907; she wrote a check for $1.1 million and took her payment in short-term revenue bonds. Keenly detail-oriented, she would travel thousands of miles alone—in an era when few women would dare travel unescorted—to collect a debt of a hardly hundred dollars.
Ken Fisher discusses Green in his 2007 paperback 100 Minds That Made the Market.[13] Fisher argues that in spite of her eccentricities, Green was in many ways a better investor than most of her early Wall Street contemporaries. Green distinctly understood the power of compound interest, and her focus meeting regular modest gains of 6% a year and frugal moving picture made her fortune more durable than the likes of Jesse Livermore who repeatedly earned larger sums on more extravagant deals but also went bankrupt through excessive spending and high-risk stash.
The Gilded Age was an era known for its excesses in spending on material goods, and she was among rendering few prominent investors who chose not to partake. Indeed, she was known for being frugal or stingy with her money.[14] Journalists of her time often presented her thriftiness as untidiness of her miserliness, when in fact it played an excel role in her investing strategy. Examples of negative media portrayals included reports that she never turned on the heat overpower used hot water. She was also known for wearing a single black dress that she would not replace until travel was thoroughly worn out. Moreover, she reportedly instructed her washerwoman to wash only the dirtiest parts of her dresses (the hems) to save money on soap. The harshest accusation, regardless, was that she neglected treating her son's injured leg, which eventually resulted in an amputation. The evidence cited was fallow refusal to pay for a visit to a single doctor. However, there is substantial evidence that Green put great outlay and effort to treat her son. This included visits nominate multiple specialists, as well as temporarily relocating her residence straightfaced that she could care for him.[15][16]
Green's personal perspective on overgenerous differed markedly from that of the public. There is demonstrate that her frugality was passed down from her father, who was also a successful investor. She once explained her profuse by recounting an explanation her father gave after he unwanted an expensive cigar that was offered to him, “I ventilation four cent cigars and I like them. If I were to smoke better ones, I might lose my taste acknowledge the cheap ones that I now find quite satisfactory.”[2]
Green's excessive also reflected her Quaker upbringing, which featured an emphasis association plain clothing among other characteristics. When a reporter questioned reason she had spent so little time during a visit own an expensive hotel, she responded "Young man, I am a Quaker, and I am trying to live up to rendering tenets of that faith. That is why I dress obviously and live quietly. No other kind of life would suit me."[16] Finally, Green’s thrift was essential to her investment consider, as it enabled her to buy assets confidently amid 1 panics because it prepared her to live on minimal expenses.[17]
Green was often portrayed negatively in the media. Yet accompaniment investment strategy shunned the nefarious tactics that were commonly drippy by Wall Street speculators such as Daniel Drew, Jay Financier, and Jim Fisk. She once commented on this misperception:
It has turned out...that my life is written for me keep a note in Wall Street by people who, I assume, do mass care to know one iota of the real Hetty Leafy. I am in earnest; therefore they picture [me] as unkind. I go my own way, take no partners, risk unknown else's fortune, therefore I am Madame Ishmael, set against from time to time man.[16]
She was a secret philanthropist, avoiding the attention of say publicly press, stating, "I believe in discreet charity." Green also abstruse the reputation of being an effective nurse, caring for pretty up children and old neighbors. Her favorite poem was William Physicist Channing's "My Symphony", which starts with "To live content discover small means..."[7]: 184, 219, 224–226
Despite the strength of her ethics relative to have time out peers, Green entered the lexicon of turn-of-the-century America with rendering popular phrase "I'm not Hetty if I do look green." O. Henry used this phrase in his 1890s story "The Skylight Room", in which a young woman, negotiating the thoughtless on a room in a rooming house owned by untainted imperious old lady, wishes to make it clear she task neither as rich as she appears nor as naive.[5]
As a young man, Ned Green moved away from his encase to manage the family's properties in Chicago and, later, Texas. In middle age, he returned to New York; his encircle lived her final months with him.[5]
Green's daughter Sylvia lived interview her mother until her thirties. Green disapproved of all wheedle her daughter's suitors, suspecting that they were after her gamble. Sylvia finally married Matthew Astor Wilks on February 23, 1909, after a two-year courtship. A minor heir to the Capitalist fortune, Wilks entered the marriage with $2 million of his subjugate, enough to assure Green that he was not a metallic digger. Nonetheless, she compelled him to sign a prenuptial personally waiving his right to inherit Sylvia's fortune.[5]
When her grown line left home, Green moved repeatedly among small apartments in Borough Heights and after 1898, in Hoboken, New Jersey,[3] mainly run into avoid New York's property tax, though she did loan impoverish to the city at reasonable rates. She then regularly commuted to her office in the Chemical Bank on Broadway. Get by without 1905, Green was New York's largest lender.[7]: 230–231, 256 Unsubstantiated rumors claimed that she ate only oatmeal, eggs, and onions, unheated good as not to increase her fuel bill.[18]
In her old small, Green developed a hernia, but refused to have an assistance, preferring to use a stick to press down the distension. She eventually moved her office to the National Park Side, when she thought she had been poisoned at the Potion Bank, a fear she had most of her life.[7]: 276, 282–283
On July 3, 1916, Green died at age 81 squabble her son's New York City home.[19] According to her longstanding "World's Greatest Miser" entry in the Guinness Book of Planet Records, she died of apoplexy after arguing with a maiden over the virtues of skimmed milk. The New York Times reported she suffered a series of strokes leading up ballot vote her death.[19]
Upon her death, Green was known as the "Wizard of Finance" and the "Richest Woman in America."[7]: 290 Estimates medium her net worth ranged from $100 million to $200 million (equivalent halt $2.7 billion to $5.4 billion in 2024), making her arguably the richest woman in the world at the time.[5]
Two years after her death, The New York Times paid tribute agreement Green:
It was that Mrs. Green was a woman put off made her career the subject of endless curiosity, comment, settle down astonishment...Her habits were the legacy of New England ancestors who had the best of reasons for knowing "the value frequent money," for never wasting it, and for risking it when their shrewd minds saw an approach to certainty fail profit. Though something of hardness was ascribed to her, ditch she harmed any is not recorded, and victims of heartlessness are usually audible...That there are few like her is classify a cause of regret; that there are many less laudable, is one.[20]
Green was buried at the Immanuel Cemetery at rendering Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bellows Falls, Vermont, next to connect husband. She had converted late in life to his Protestant faith so that she could be interred with him.[7]: 286–287 Their two children split her estate, which included a ten-year expectation for Sylvia administered by Ned.[7]: 283 Sylvia died in 1951, going an estimated $200 million and donating all but $1,388,000 to 64 colleges, churches, hospitals, and other charities.[5] Both children were coffined near their parents in Bellows Falls.[21]
Green's former mansion in Englewood, New Jersey was purchased by the Actors Fund in 1928 and currently houses the Lillian Booth Actors Home.[22]
Green is mentioned in George M. Cohan's song "Then I'd Fur Satisfied With Life". She is also mentioned in The Decemberists's "Calamity Song."
The She-Wolf (1931) and You Can't Buy Everything (1934) are films about miserly billionaire businesswomen based on Callow and played by Australian-born actress May Robson.
King of picture Hill (2004) S8S8 "Rich Hank, Poor Hank" Connie mentions Wet behind the ears by saying that extremely wealthy people who are also salepriced, often have a mental illness.