The tale of America's wealthiest woman reads like fiction, yet Hetty Green's extraordinary life defied all expectations of Gilded Age wealth. Born in 1834 to a prosperous Quaker family, young Hetty wasn't groomed for society balls—she was trained in finance, reading financial newspapers to her grandfather by age six and managing the family ledgers by thirteen.

While robber barons of her era flaunted their fortunes with mansions and diamonds, Hetty took a radically different approach. The "Witch of Wall Street" amassed a fortune that would make today's billionaires blush while living in cheap apartments, wearing the same black dress until it fell apart, and eating oatmeal warmed on radiators. Her financial philosophy was deceptively simple: buy low when nobody wants something, sell high when everybody does. During the Civil War, she purchased devalued "greenbacks" that others considered worthless, holding them until their value skyrocketed when backed by gold in 1875.

What drove this extraordinary contradiction? For Hetty, money represented something beyond material comfort—it was freedom in a world where women had precious little. By the time she died in 1916 following an argument about milk, her fortune had grown to $100-200 million (approximately $2.5-5 billion today), surpassing the wealth of J.P. Morgan, the Vanderbilts, and the Astors. Her children ultimately rejected her extreme frugality, with her son Ned embracing luxury while her daughter Sylvia became a philanthropist. Beyond the caricature of miserliness lies the story of a financial genius who understood that true wealth isn't what you spend—it's what you keep. Subscribe now to hear more remarkable stories of history's most fascinating and overlooked figures.

Striving for Unity in Your Walk by David Mora

https://www.faithlafayette.org/resources/sermons/striving-for-unity-in-your-walk?location=north#:~:text=The%20family%20was%20deprived%20of,The%20New%20York%20Social%20Diary

Hetty Green – Her Stingiest Stories That Would Make Her a Billionaire Today By Kanza Panhwar

https://openskynews.com/hetty-green-her-stingiest-stories-that-would-make-her-a-billionaire-today/046916/#google_vignette

The Peculiar Story of the Witch of Wall Street By Kat Eschner

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/peculiar-story-hetty-green-aka-witch-wall-street-180967258/#:~:text=,enemy%20of%20Hetty%2C%20called%20her

Another Look at Hetty Green, The Witch of Wall Street By Leslie Landrigan

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/another-look-hetty-green-witch-wall-street/#:~:text=When%20she%20turned%20

Send us a text

Support the show

This website contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the running of this website and allows me to continue providing valuable content. Please note that I only recommend products and services that I believe in and have personally used or researched.