Top of page

photograph of Hetty green in Profile
The San Francisco Call., March 26, 1899, p 18.

But Was She Really the “Witch of Wall Street”

Share this post:

Hetty Green seems to have been given a rather frightful sobriquet for a woman who came from a Quaker family and was by several accounts quite religious. Her reputation may have been the result of being a successful businesswoman in an age of businessmen or it may have been a result of being a little ruthless in her success.  Whatever the reason, Hetty Green was a rather formidable woman.  How else would she have been able to amass so much money and be considered the richest woman and one of the richest people in America?

Harriet Robinson was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in November 1834.  Her family had made millions with their whaling fleet and shipping interests.  Hetty seems to have developed her financial skills at a very early age after spending considerable time with her grandfather Gideon Howland who would talk to her about financial matters and encourage her to read financial papers. Hetty married a wealthy Vermont man, Edward Henry Green, and did something unusual for the day – she asked the prospective husband to renounce all rights to her money.

Although formidable, she was also quite talented and very successful. Through her own efforts, she parlayed the money her father left her (varying accounts put at about $5 – $7 million dollars), as well as money left to her by her spinster aunt, Sylvia Ann Howland, into an even bigger fortune by investing in real estate and railroads.  In 1899 an article in the San Francisco Call estimated her worth at about $60,000,000 while an article titled “The World’s Richest Two Dozen” in the June 2,1905 Seattle Republican estimated her worth at $100,000,000. When confronted with the question in 1905, she is quoted in an article in the National Magazine, as saying she was worth less than everyone thought because “rich people are always worth less than report has it.” [1]  Due to her wealth and interests, her name was linked with the likes of Russell Sage, JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and other financiers and tycoons of the day.

A cabinet that could afford it. Pughe, J. S. Illustration shows eight men and one woman sitting and standing around a table, each is identified with a Cabinet position: J.P. Morgan as “Sec’y Navy”, Thomas W. Lawson as “Sec’y War”, Thomas F. Ryan as “Att’y Gen’l”, James J. Hill as “Sec’y Int.”, James H. Hyde as “Sec’y Com. and Lab.”, Russell Sage as “Sec’y Agric”, Henrietta “Hetty” Green as “Post Mistress Gen’l”, Andrew Carnegie as “Sec’y State”, and John D. Rockefeller as “Sec’y Treas”; sitting on the table is a statue labeled “Golden Calf” and hanging on the wall are portraits of “Midas” and “Croesus”. On the far left is a ticker tape machine.

Like many successful people, she was often asked for financial advice.   On being asked what a woman with a few hundred dollars should do with that money, she said real estate was the best investment – especially if bought at auction when the prices were lower.

“I regard real estate investments as the safest means of using idle money… Let a woman watch and see in which direction a city is going to develop and buy there.” [2]

Hetty felt that for women “safe and low was better than risky and high.”  For her:

“There was no great secret in fortune making. All you have to do is buy cheap and sell dear, act with thrift and shrewdness and then be persistent.” [3]

Her advice to others followed her own practices – her real estate investment strategy was to buy property cheap when nobody wanted it, hold onto it until there was interest, and then sell high.  She was less active in stocks, especially industrials, because she felt Wall Street was “no place for a woman,” but did have a fondness for government bonds, despite the fact they didn’t pay a high rate of interest. [4] However, when she did buy stocks she preferred buying them for investment and not for speculation and would “never buy on a margin.” She was definitely one to pay attention and seize any opportunities that arose.  In the book  The Witch of Wall Street (1936), there is a chapter on the Panic of 1907 where Hetty assessed the events of the year.  She indicated that she knew the panic was coming and goes on to say that she made every effort to have cash on hand in order to lend to those that came to her – including the city of New York, to whom she lent over a million dollars in return for short-term revenue bonds.

Many of the stories written about her were rather sensational.  A San Francisco Call article from March 26, 1899 indicated that she never paid taxes, lived in cheap lodgings, and believed so strongly that there was a conspiracy of lawyers who were out to get her, that she hired a bodyguard and began carrying a pistol. The article went on to say that she and her husband had stopped living together because she didn’t respect him after he lost all of his money and hinted that her son lost his leg because she wouldn’t pay the money to fix it properly. [5]

Most articles written about Mrs. Hetty Green mention the numerous lawsuits over family wills and other issues in which she was embroiled for most of her life. A 1910 article in the Salt Lake Herald Republican detailed how Hetty supposedly tried to break her aunt’s will with a forged one because she wanted all of her aunt’s estate (she lost the case).  Another article titled “Mister Hetty Green” said her husband was on an allowance.

Seated photograph of Hetty green from the waist up
Richest Woman, Mrs. Green, Dies. El Paso Herald., July 03, 1916, p5.

Hetty died in July 1916 in New York City.  According to her obituary in the New York Times on July 4th, her estate was estimated to be about $100,000,000.  When the text of her will was printed in the July 23, 1916 New York Times, the mystery of how much she was worth continued –  her will did not stipulate an inventory of the estate which would have determined the exact amount of her final estate. [6]

As to the origin of the Witch of Wall Street nickname, in the Witch of Wall Street by Boyden Sparkes and Samuel Taylor Moore, the authors had this to say:

“When, however, Mrs. Green next appeared in New York she was wearing her mourning and for years thereafter she was never seen on the street except with a heavy swathing of black veil.  It was this garment, perhaps, as much as anything that caused her to be spoken of as the Witch of Wall Street.” [7]

If you want to read more on this interesting woman, there are several books that may be of interest:

 


References

1. Ford, Carol. “Hetty Green, A Character Study”, National Magazine, September, 1905.  p. 633.
2. Ford, p. 632.
3. Ford, p. 633.
4. Ford, p. 633.
5. “Hetty Green the Richest Woman in America.” San Francisco Call, March 26, 1899, p. 18.
6. “Hetty Green’s Will is Read in Court.” New York Times, July 23, 1916, p 1.
7. Sparkes, Boyden. The Witch of Wall Street, Hetty Green. (Garden City: Garden City Publishing, 1936) p. 265

Comments (5)

  1. Thank you. My family played a word game: Hetty Green was odd and queer but not peculiar. She like the Jefferson building, but not the Adams building. She like Wall Street but not Park Avenue. The game would continue until everyone got the trick.
    Now I know about the real Hetty Green.

  2. Dear Ms. Terrell –

    The story of Hetty Green would make a teriffic movie. I am sure you would agree.

    I am from Bellows Falls, VT., which is where Hetty Green is buried. She was a fasinating woman with a very interesting family.

    I could have seen Bette Davis in that role. Who knows, maybe someday, someone will take the challenge.
    Thanks for the article.
    Bruce Fontaine

  3. In Spanish Language. Muy interesante el artículo , no tenía la menor idea de la existencia de una mujer con esa característica. Enriquecerse no es una falta, sí se hace en términos éticos aceptadas por la comunidad toda. No había visto un caso como éste ni siquiera en filmes ambientados en esa época.

  4. It’s neat learning about Hettie Green. My aunt willed me an ornate, antique gaming table. She left a note with the table saying it was once owned by Hettie. It’d be neat to verify that some day (maybe a picture of Hettie with the table? not likely!). I wonder is she did do any gaming- she was quite religious. I’ll have to do more research.

  5. Someone used her as an illustration of miserly greed and I decided to read up a little. She sounds to me like a rather joyless, but not terrible person. She had Quaker beliefs and didn’t believe in showiness. She is said to have secretly supported thirty families and bailed out NYC with a loan when it was in deep financial trouble as well as loaning money at lower-than-normal interest rates to several churches.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.