Green conducted 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 rumours claimed that she ate only oatmeal heated on the office radiator. 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". She was a successful businesswoman who dealt mainly in real estate invested in railroads and lent money. The City of New York came to Hetty in need of loans to keep the city afloat on several occasions most particularly during the Panic of 1907; she wrote a check for $1.1 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. Her frugality extended to family life. Her son Ned broke his leg as a child and Hetty tried to have him admitted in a free clinic for the poor.2 According to Green's biographer Charles Slack the oft-repeated story that when she was recognized she stormed away vowing to treat the wounds herself is only half true. He relates that having been found out (and perhaps also after procrastinating about seeking treatment for the boy in the first place) Green paid her bill and thereafter brought him to other doctors (while also trying home remedies).2 Similarly Slack relates that it is not true that the leg had to be amputated because of gangrene.2 Rather it was amputated after years of unsuccessful treatment. In any case Ned ended up with a cork prosthesis. Later life When he moved away from his mother to manage the family's properties in Chicago and later Texas Ned became an ardent philatelist and assembled one of the finest private stamp collections ever. In middle age he returned to New York; his mother would pass her final months with him. Ned ultimately married his long-time "housekeeper" a former prostitute he met in Texas Mabel of whom Hetty wholeheartedly disapproved.2 Although it has often been said that Ned spent the rest of his life spending most of his share of Hetty's fortune in fact (although he was a spendthrift) the $1 million yearly income he made on the approximately $100 million fortune he inherited was adequate to his most expensive needs he left the same amount when he died. (Most of Ned's estate went to Sylvia while Mabel had been provided for (significantly less generously) during Ned's lifetime.2 One of his more infamous extravagant purchases was a diamond-encrusted chamber pot.5 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. 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$5000 for signing this prenuptial agreement. (Wilks a minor heir to the Astor fortune entered the marriage with US$2000000 of his own enough to assure Hetty that he was not a gold digger.) When her children left home Green moved repeatedly among small apartments in Brooklyn Heights and Hoboken New Jersey1 mainly to avoid establishing a residence permanent enough to attract the attention of tax officials in any state. In her old age she began to suffer from a bad hernia but refused to have an operation because it cost $150. She suffered many strokes and had to rely on a wheelchair. She also became afraid that she would be kidnapped and made detours to evade the would-be pursuers. She began to suspect that her aunt and father had been poisoned. Death Hetty Green died at age 81 in New York City.6 According to her longstanding "World's Greatest Miser" entry in the Guinness Book of World Records she died of apoplexy when she argued with a maid about the virtues of skimmed milk. Biographer Slack however 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). Estimates of her net worth ranged from $100 million to $200 million (or $1.9 $3.8 billion in 2006 dollars) (Slack estimates $200 million) arguably making her the richest woman in the world at the time.2 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. Her children especially Ned 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 was an accomplished collector with interests in everything from auto racing to science to horticulture. 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. When Sylvia died in 1951 she left an estate of an estimated US$200 million donating all but US$1388000 of it to 64 charities including colleges churches and hospitals.2 Both children are also buried in Bellows Falls.7 See also Business magnate Miser Collyer brothers New York City misers and hoarders References a b Rosenblum Constance (December 19 2004). "'Hetty': Scrooge in Hoboken". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/books/review/19ROSENBL.htmlex1187755200&enb441ba5564fcba52&ei5070. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "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."  a b c d e f g h Slack Charles Hetty: The Genius And Madness Of America's First Female Tycoon. New York: Ecco (2004) ISBN 006054256X. Robinson v. Mandell 20 F. Cas. 1027 (C.C.D. Mass. 1868) (No. 11959) "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". The New York Times. February 6 1951 Tuesday. "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."  a b "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" NPR radio program episode of April 3 2010 "Hetty Green Dies Worth $100000000; 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 $100000000". The New York Times. July 4 1916 Tuesday. "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 $100000000 and had made her name known in the market places of the world faced death as she had life militantly and unafraid."  http://www.stevens-tech.edu/stute/archive/pdfs/1951/19510224-48-14.pdf Further reading Slack Charles Hetty: The Genius And Madness Of America's First Female Tycoon. New York: Ecco (2004). ISBN 006054256X Lewis Arthur H. The Day They Shook the Plum Tree. New York: Harcourt Brace. (1963); Buccaneer Books Cutchogue NY (1990) ISBN 0899666000 Carol Ford "Hetty Green A Character Study" National Magazine September 1905. External links A more generous profile: "Shrewdness and Gumption" CNNMoney.com: Wealthy eccentrics Hetty Green WallStreetCosmos.Com: Hetty Green Witch or Wizard Hetty Green at Find a Grave Persondata Name Green Hetty Alternative names Short description Date of birth November 21 1834 Place of birth New Bedford Massachusetts USA Date of death July 3 1916 Place of death New York New York USA