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.

Unwilling to participate in New York City high society, conspicuous consumption, or business partnerships, she may have been eccentric and curt with the press 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 of 1907 helped bail out Wall Street, New York City, and the United States economy.

Stories that were often cited include her refusal to buy expensive clothes or pay for hot water, and her habit of wearing a single dress that was replaced only when it was worn out.

[citation needed] Later evaluations have seen her as perhaps eccentric, but mostly out-of-step with the excesses of the Gilded Age wealthy, and the contemporary expectations for women, especially of her class.

The unifying theme throughout this period of her life was her unapologetic rejection of societal norms established for women at the time — especially wealthy heiresses.

Green cared little for her appearance, preferring to dress in old clothes, and she disregarded the daily primping practiced by young women.

Green's behavior frustrated her mother and Aunt Sylvia because they feared what the future would hold for a wealthy heiress who felt more at home on the docks of New Bedford than mingling with members of her class.

Her father was the only person unable to contain his delight when he learned that Green had spent only $200 out of her $1,200 budget, investing the remainder in high-quality bonds.

The constant fights over Aunt Sylvia's will led to a drawn-out court battle, which haunted Green for the remainder of her life.

[8] While residing in New York City, Hetty met her future husband, Edward Henry Green of Vermont.

Sylvia Howland had willed half of her $2 million estate to charities and entities in the town of New Bedford; the rest was placed in a trust for Hetty, but once again without her control of the principal.

This enraged Hetty because she believed that she could invest the assets more effectively and at a much lower cost – a claim she later proved beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Exhausted from lawsuits and concerned about an effort by Hetty's cousins to have her indicted for forgery based on the Robinson v. Mandell decision, the couple moved overseas to London, where they lived in the Langham Hotel.

Hetty's discounted greenbacks, bought during the Civil War, were increased in value when Congress passed legislation in 1875 backing them with gold.

She also thought, "It is the duty of every woman, I believe, to learn to take care of her own business affairs," and "A girl should be brought up as to be able to make her own living..." "Whether rich or poor, a young woman should know how a bank account works, understand the composition of mortgages and bonds, and know the value of interest and how it accumulates.

Possibly because of her usually dour dress (due mainly to frugality, but perhaps in part related to her Quaker upbringing), she was given the nickname "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.

Green clearly understood the power of compound interest, and her focus on regular modest gains of 6% a year and frugal living 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 investments.

[14] Journalists of her time often presented her thriftiness as evidence of her miserliness, when in fact it played an important role in her investing strategy.

If I were to smoke better ones, I might lose my taste for the cheap ones that I now find quite satisfactory.”[2] Green's thrift also reflected her Quaker upbringing, which featured an emphasis on plain clothing among other characteristics.

When a reporter questioned why she had spent so little time during a visit to an expensive hotel, she responded "Young man, I am a Quaker, and I am trying to live up to the tenets of that faith.

"[16] Finally, Green’s thrift was essential to her investment strategy, as it enabled her to buy assets confidently amid financial panics because it prepared her to live on minimal expenses.

Yet her investment strategy shunned the nefarious tactics that were commonly used by Wall Street speculators such as Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and Jim Fisk.

She once commented on this misperception: It has turned out...that my life is written for me down in Wall Street by people who, I assume, do not care to know one iota of the real Hetty Green.

[5] As a young man, Ned Green moved away from his mother to manage the family's properties in Chicago and, later, Texas.

A minor heir to the Astor fortune, Wilks entered the marriage with $2 million of his own, enough to assure Green that he was not a gold digger.

[5] When her grown children left home, Green moved repeatedly among small apartments in Brooklyn Heights and after 1898, in Hoboken, New Jersey,[3] mainly to avoid New York's property tax, though she did loan money to the city at reasonable rates.

[5] Two days after her death, The New York Times paid tribute to Green: It was that Mrs. Green was a woman that made her career the subject of endless curiosity, comment, and astonishment...Her habits were the legacy of New England ancestors who had the best of reasons for knowing "the value of money," for never wasting it, and for risking it only when their shrewd minds saw an approach to certainty of profit.

The She-Wolf (1931) and You Can't Buy Everything (1934) are films about miserly billionaire businesswomen based on Green and played by Australian-born actress May Robson.