hetty the genius and madness of america's first female tycoon

She left a fortune estimated conservatively at $100 million, or about $1.6 billion today. Read moreĪt the time of her death in 1916, Hetty Green was widely regarded as the wealthiest woman in America. And the full story concerning her son's damaged leg is here.The claim that has been printed so many times- that she allowed the boy's leg to go without medical treatment until it had to be amputated rather than pay a doctor- is untrue. And she was suspected of forging her aunt's signature to a will that cut out most of the beneficiaries after the woman's death.The surprises in this book are that Hetty actually did let go of some of her money, giving large anonymous donations to charities and speaking out for the working class. She refused to pay for a cab, instead walking miles every day to the bank. She would haggle with merchants and waiters over charges as low as 15 cents at a time when she owned a railroad and some of the most valuable property on Michigan Ave. Sometimes she was recognized and made to pay the bill, which made her furious. She actually did dress herself and her children as paupers to receive free medical attention. There were several times when NYC approached and received loans from Hetty Green of over a million dollars to keep public services running.There are many stories about her greed and some are true. She had an amazing business sense, which she gained from her wealthy father, to know when a piece of real estate or a bond would be valuable in the future and to keep her head when the stock market plunged.

I first read about her in The People's Almanac as a kid and thought she was fascinating, as did every newspaper during her decades as the wealthiest woman in America. Hetty Green was known as The Witch of Wall Street around 1890, as she dressed in shabby old black gowns and outdated bonnets while she saw to her business about New York's financial district.

Hetty the genius and madness of america's first female tycoon