| Hetty Green | |
 | |
| Born | Henrietta Howland Robinson November 21, 1834 New Bedford, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Died | July 3, 1916 (aged 81) New York City |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Known for | Miser |
| Spouse | Edward Henry Green |
| Children | Edward Howland Robinson Green (1868-1936) Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks (1871-?) |
| Parents | Edward Mott Robinson Abby Howland |
| Relatives | Sylvia Ann Howland, aunt |
Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916) was an American businesswoman, remarkable for her frugality during the Gilded Age, as well as for being the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street. Events 164 BC - Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The City of New York A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend Money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green ( August 22, 1868 &ndash June 8, 1936) also known as Colonel Green, was the son of The Howland will forgery trial was a US court case in 1868 to decide Henrietta Howland Robinson 's contest of the will of Sylvia Ann Howland Events 164 BC - Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A businessperson (also businessman or businesswoman) is someone who is employed at usually a profit-oriented enterprise, or more specifically someone In American history, the Gilded Age refers to major growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during [1]
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Birth and early years
Hetty Green was born Henrietta Howland Robinson in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Her family were Quakers who owned a large whaling fleet. Whaling is the hunting of Whales and dates back to at least 6000 BC At the age of two, she was living with her grandfather Gideon Howland. Because of his influence and that of her father, Edward Mott Robinson, and possibly because her mother Abby Howland was constantly ill, she took to her father's side and was reading financial papers to her father by the age of six. When she was 13, Hetty became the family bookkeeper. Bookkeeping (also book-keeping or book keeping) is the recording of all Financial transactions undertaken by an individual or Organization (including At the age of fifteen, Hetty went to a school in Boston.
When her father died in 1864, she inherited $7. Year 1864 ( MDCCCLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year 5 million in liquid assets, against the objections of most of her family, and invested in Civil War War bonds. Market liquidity is a Business, Economics or Investment term that refers to an Asset 's ability to be easily converted through an act of buying Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South War bonds are a type of Savings bond used by combatant nations to help fund a war effort and as a Monetary policy for controlling Inflation from an However, when she heard that her aunt Sylvia had willed most of her $2 million to charity, she contested the will with a document she had probably written herself. The case against her aunt's executor, Robinson v. Mandell, was fought for five years before Hetty lost. An executor, in the broadest sense is one who carries something out (in other words one who is responsible for executing a task The Howland will forgery trial was a US court case in 1868 to decide Henrietta Howland Robinson 's contest of the will of Sylvia Ann Howland
Marriage
At the age of 33, she married Edward Henry Green, member of a wealthy Vermont family. Vermont ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. She made him renounce all rights to her money before the wedding on July 11, 1867. A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a Contract entered Events 911 - Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. Year 1867 ( MDCCCLXVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting The married couple moved to Edward's home in Manhattan, but when her cousins tried to sue her for forgery, they moved to London where they lived in the Langham Hotel. Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York Forgery is the process of making adapting or imitating objects statistics or documents (see False document) with the intent to deceive. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Langham Hotel London is one of the largest and best known traditional style grand hotels in London. Her two children, Edward Howland Robinson Green "Ned" and Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Green "Sylvia", were born there, Ned on August 22, 1868 and Sylvia on January 7, 1871. Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green ( August 22, 1868 &ndash June 8, 1936) also known as Colonel Green, was the son of Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks (1871 - February 5, 1951) was the daughter of Hetty Green and the sister of Edward Howland Robinson Green Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor. Year 1868 ( MDCCCLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental Year 1871 ( MDCCCLXXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common [2]
As Edward pursued investments as a sort of "gentleman banker", Hetty began parlaying her inheritances into her own astonishing fortune. She formulated an investment strategy to which she stuck throughout her life: conservative investments, substantial cash reserves to back up any movement, and an exceedingly cool head amidst turmoil. During her time in London, most of her investment efforts focused on greenbacks, the notes printed by the U. S. government immediately after the Civil War. When more timid investors were wary of notes put forth by the still-recovering government, Hetty bought at full bore, claiming to have made US$1. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 25 million from her bond investments in one year alone. Her earnings on that front were to fund her great subsequent rail-bond purchases.
When the Green family returned to the United States, they went to Edward's hometown in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Bellows Falls is an incorporated Village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. Already something of an eccentric, she began to quarrel not only with her husband and in-laws but also with the domestic servants and neighborhood shopkeepers. After the 1885 collapse of the financial house John J. Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Cisco & Son, in which Hetty was the largest investor, investigation revealed that Edward had not only been the firm's greatest debtor but that management of the firm had surreptitiously used Hetty's wealth as the basis for their loans to Edward. Hetty, emphasizing that their finances were separate, withdrew her securities and deposited them in Chemical Bank, and Edward moved out of their home. In later years, however, they would effect at least a partial reconciliation, and Hetty helped nurse him in the years before his death from heart disease and chronic nephritis on March 19, 1902. Nephritis is Inflammation of the Kidney. The word comes from the Greek nephro- meaning "of the kidney" and -itis meaning "inflammation" Events 1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China. Year 1902 ( MCMII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting He was buried in Bellows Falls in the graveyard of Immanuel Church.
Miser
Green was mainly interested in business, and there are many tales (of various degrees of accuracy) about her stinginess. She never turned on the heat nor used hot water. She wore one old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out. She did not wash her hands and rode an old carriage. She ate mostly pies that cost fifteen cents. One tale claims that she spent a night looking around her home for a lost stamp worth two cents.
Green made much of her business at the offices of the Seaboard National Bank in New York, surrounded by trunks and suitcases full of her papers; she did not want to pay rent for an office. Later unfounded rumors claimed that she ate only oatmeal she heated on the office radiator. Breakfast cereal health benefits There has been increasing interest in oatmeal in recent years due to its beneficial health effects Possibly because of the stiff competition of the mostly male business environment and partly because of her usually dour dress sense (due mainly to frugality, but perhaps ascribable in part to her Quaker upbringing), she was given the nickname the "Witch of Wall Street". However, she was a successful businesswoman who dealt mainly in real estate and invested in railroads, in addition to lending money. Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions notably in the USA, United Kingdom Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in Business management, Finance and Economics, related to saving On several occasions, the City of New York came to Hetty in need of loans to keep the city afloat, most particularly during the Panic of 1907; she wrote a check for $1. The Panic of 1907 also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a Financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the Stock market fell close to 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 few hundred dollars. Debt is that which is owed usually referencing Assets owed but the term can cover other obligations
Her frugality extended to family life. Her son Ned broke his leg as a child, but Hetty took him away from the hospital when she was recognized. Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green ( August 22, 1868 &ndash June 8, 1936) also known as Colonel Green, was the son of She tried to treat him at home, but the leg contracted gangrene and had to be amputated – he ended up with a cork prosthesis. Please do not add warnings to this page about the pictures Wikipedia is not censored for taste and has a guideline preventing such warnings - WikipediaNo disclaimers in articles Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or Surgery. In Medicine, a prosthesis (plural prostheses) is an Artificial extension that replaces a missing Body part. When he moved away from his mother to manage the family's properties in Chicago and, later, Texas, he became an ardent philatelist, who assembled one of the finest stamp collections ever in private hands. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Philately is the study and collecting of revenue and postage stamps Stamp collecting is the Collecting of Postage stamps and related objects such as covers (envelopes or packages with stamps on them In middle age, he returned to New York; his mother would pass her final months with him. Ned ultimately married his long time "housekeeper", Mabel, of whom Hetty wholeheartedly disapproved.
Mrs. Green's extreme respect for her own privacy aside, she entered the lexicon of turn-of-the-century America with the sobriquet "I'm not Hetty if I do look green" ; this phrase is quoted in O. Henry's 1890s story "The Skylight Room" when a young woman, negotiating the rent on a room in a rooming house owned by an imperious old lady, wishes to make it clear she is neither as rich as she appears nor as naive. In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions A sobriquet is a Nickname or a fancy name usually a familiar name given by others as distinct from a Pseudonym assumed as a disguise but a nickname which is familiar O Henry is the Pen name of American Writer William Sydney Porter ( September 11, 1862 – June 5
Her daughter Sylvia lived with Hetty until her thirties. Hetty disapproved of all of Sylvia's suitors because she suspected they wanted only to get their hands on her money. When Green finally let Matthew Astor Wilks marry Sylvia on February 23, 1909 after a two-year courtship, the groom waived his right to inherit Sylvia's fortune, and received US$5,000 for signing this prenuptial agreement. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a Contract entered (Wilks, a minor heir to the Astor fortune, entered the marriage with US$2,000,000 of his own, enough to assure Hetty that he wasn't simply gold-digging. The Astor family is a significant Anglo - American family of German descent notable for their prominence in Business, society, and )
When her children left home, Green moved repeatedly among small apartments in Brooklyn Heights and Hoboken, New Jersey[1], mainly to avoid establishing a residence permanent enough to attract the attention of tax officials in any state. Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.
In her old age she began to suffer from a bad hernia but refused to have an operation because it cost $150. A hernia is a protrusion of a tissue, structure or part of an organ through the muscular tissue or the membrane by which it is normally contained She suffered many strokes and had to rely on a wheelchair. A wheelchair is a wheeled Mobility device in which the user sits She also became afraid that she would be kidnapped and made detours to evade the would-be pursuers. In Criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or Asportation of a person against the person's will usually to hold the person in False imprisonment She began to suspect that her aunt and father had been poisoned.
Death
Hetty Green died in New York City on July 3, 1916, at the age of 81. The City of New York Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year [3]
According to her longstanding "World's Greatest Miser" entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, she died of apoplexy when she was arguing with a maid about the virtues of skimmed milk. Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous U However, biographer Charles Slack reports this not to have been the case; Green had in fact suffered a series of strokes since April 17 of that year (the date of the argument with an intemperate cook in the employ of her lifelong friend Annie Leary). Events 69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor. An estimate of her net worth was around $100 – $200 million (or $1. 9 – $3. 8 billion in 2006 dollars), arguably making her the richest woman in the world at the time. She was buried in Bellows Falls, Vermont, next to her late husband, having converted late in life to his Episcopalian faith so they could be interred together. Bellows Falls is an incorporated Village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States.
Her children, lacking their mother's financial genius, also tended to spend their money more freely – though it should be noted that both came through the Great Depression relatively unscathed by following Hetty's investment philosophy of conservative buying backed by substantial cash reserves. Ned, an accomplished collector with interests in everything from auto racing to science to horticulture, spent much of his inheritance living extravagantly and generously. His Round Hill estate was long used by MIT scientists for experiments including a prototype atom smasher, and his powerful WMAF radio transmitters were used to keep in touch with Richard E. Byrd's 1928-30 Antarctic expedition. Round Hill is a location in Dartmouth Massachusetts of historical significance Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, USN ( October 25, 1888 &ndash March 11, 1957) was a pioneering American polar When Sylvia died in 1951, she left an estate of an estimated US$100 million (over $800 million in today's dollars), donating all but US$1,388,000 of it to 64 charities, including colleges, churches, and hospitals. Both children are also buried in Bellows Falls. [1]
References
- ^ a b "'Hetty': Scrooge in Hoboken", New York Times, December 19, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World "Hetty Green was that rarity, a woman who largely through her own efforts amassed a ton of money during the Gilded Age, a time when virtually everyone else getting rich -- Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie -- was a man. By nearly all accounts she was also a thoroughly unpleasant individual, greedy, petty and often downright nasty. "
- ^ "Mrs. Hetty Wilks Dead At Age Of 80; Daughter Of Hetty Green, Noted For Financial Manipulations, Wed Descendant Of Astor "Accustomed To Economy" Active Until Last Year William A. Haegele George T. Cottrell Mrs. Max Besas", New York Times, February 6, 1951, Tuesday. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World "Mrs. H. Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks of 988 Fifth Avenue, widow of Matthew Astor Wilks, and daughter of Hetty Green, the famous woman financier, died yesterday in the New York Hospital at the age of 80. "
- ^ "Hetty Green Dies, Worth $100,000,000; Passes Away At Son's Home After Several Paralytic Strokes, Aged 82. Hoped To Live To Be 85 Invested Heavily In Bonds And Mortgages In Recent Years. Stock Market Not Affected. Hetty Green Dies Worth $100,000,000", New York Times, July 4, 1916, Tuesday. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Retrieved on 2007-07-21. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World "Mrs. Hetty Green, generally believed to be the world's richest woman, died yesterday in her eighty-second year after an illness of several months. The woman whose great business acumen had built up a fortune estimated at $100,000,000 and had made her name known in the market places of the world faced death as she had life, militantly and unafraid. "
Further reading
- Slack, Charles, Hetty: The Genius And Madness Of America's First Female Tycoon. New York: Ecco, 2004.
- Lewis, Arthur H, The Day They Shook the Plum Tree. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1963
See also
- Business magnate
- Miser
- Collyer brothers New York City misers and hoarders
- A more generous profile: "Shrewdness and Gumption"
- CNNMoney.com: Wealthy eccentrics, Hetty Green
- WallStreetCosmos.Com: Hetty Green, Witch or Wizard?
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