Emily Chan
Like the other major financiers of her time, Green engaged in unethical activities. For instance, after her Aunt Sylvia Howland died, she produced a letter in court with a forged signature that claimed she was the lawful heir of her aunt’s inheritance.
Aunt Sylvia had died with over $2 million, and her will gave $1 million to charities, leaving $1 million to Green as investments managed by Sylvia’s physician. Green ended up losing in court.
Although she did not have complete control over her inheritance, she was able to grow the wealth she did have access to. She continued investing in stocks, government bonds, real estate, and railroads.
By 1885, her fortune was valued at $26 million. In 1867, she married a man named Edward Henry Green. He was a wealthy businessman from Vermont who became a millionaire by age 44. Of course, she had him sign a pre-nuptial agreement to protect her money.
They had two children together, and after her husband died young, she groomed her son Edward to take over the family fortune. When Green started to wear black clothes to mourn her husband’s death, newspapers began referring to her as the “Witch of Wall Street.”
She also became extremely frugal, to the point where she moved her family to cheap housing and denied medical treatment for herself and her children, which led to her son needing a leg amputation.
Green died in 1916. She gave $1 million to the descendants of her grandfather and $25,000 to her friends. She left the rest of her $100 million estate to her children. Hetty Green made valuable contributions to the field of investing.
She created jobs throughout the country and served as an example of a woman who thrived in a male-dominated industry.
