Hetty Green

Known as the Witch of Wall Street, Hetty Green was one of America's richest people at the turn of the 20th century, but she was also one of the most miserly.

Hetty Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916),[1] nicknamed the "Witch of Wall Street", was an American businesswoman and financierknown as "the richest woman in America" during the Gilded Age. Known for both her wealth and her miserliness, she was the lone woman to amass a fortune as a financier when other major financiers were men



While Green's husband Edward pursued investments as a sort of "gentleman banker", Hetty Green 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 Green bought at full bore, claiming to have made US$1.25 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 settled in Edward's hometown of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Already something of an eccentric, Green 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. Cisco & Son, in which Hetty Green was the largest investor, investigation revealed that Edward had been the firm's greatest debtor. The firm's management had surreptitiously used her wealth as the basis for their loans to Edward.

Emphasizing that their finances were separate, Green withdrew her securities and deposited them in Chemical Bank. Edward moved out of their home. In later years, they would effect at least a partial reconciliation. Hetty helped nurse Edward in the years before his death on March 19, 1902, from heart disease and chronic nephritis. He was buried in Bellows Falls in the graveyard of Immanuel Church.

wiki

the witch of wall street

 

A tough lady from a Quaker background. Hetty invested in realestate, mortgages and railroads. “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.”

 

Thrift must have a limit or life is pointless, except accruing as much money as possible.

 

... and she died 50 years BEFORE Women’s Lib kicked off.

She lived way before her time!!!