Hetty (36 page)

Vanderbilt, William Kissam, 103–4

Van Twisk, Jacob, 197

Waco and Northwestern Railroad, 124–27

Wall, Joseph Frazier, 106

Wall Street, ix, x, 85–86, 87, 114, 121, 138

watered stock, 166–68

“Wealth” (Carnegie), 106

Wealthy 100, The
(Klepper and Gunther), xii

Wellesley College, 216–17

Westminster Company, 187–89, 192

whaling industry, 2–4, 7, 8-g, 210, 214

Civil War and, 24

dangers of, 9

decline of, 23–24, 38, 123

products of, 2, 4

see also
Isaac Howland Jr. and Company

Wharton, A. B., 185

Wharton, Edith, 20

White, James, 191–92

Wilks, Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Green, 71, 83, 137, 143, 145–48, 153, 159, 160, 181, 196, 198, 199, 202, 209, 210

Annie Leary’s relationship with, 108, 147–48, 156, 171, 173, 175, 176

appearance of, 105, 148

in Brooklyn, 104, 145–46, 149

correspondence of, 145–46, 217–18, 224, 236n, 239n

death of, 224

engagement of, 175–78

financial education of, 112

funeral of, 225

in Greenwich, 223–24

as Hetty’s constant companion, 105, 112, 141, 142, 145

inheritance of, 204, 205, 206, 219–21, 222–26

Wilks, Hetty Sylvia Ann Howland Green (cont.)

Mabel Greens relationship with, 218, 219–20, 221

married life of, 181

personality of, 81, 105, 108, 112, 146, 148

obituaries of, 224–25

pet dog of, 217–18

Round Hill mansion donated by, 223

school years of, 80–81

suitors of, 108, 146–48, 172–78

Tucker House demolition ordered by, 222–23

wedding of, 178–80

will of, 225–26

Wilks, Katherine L., 177

Wilks, Matthew Astor, 175–80, 181, 202, 225

death of, 218, 219

Hetty’s party for, 176

prenuptial agreement of, 180, 205

Williams, George Gilbert, 133–34, 163, 236n

Williams, John M, 43

William T. Coleman and Company, 24

Wilson, Alfred C, 203

Wing, Eliza, 16

Wood, Elizabeth A., 39

Woodhull, Victoria, x

Yarmouth, Charles Francis Seymour, earl of, 173–74, 237n

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
n my Parents’ home outside of Boston, there is a silver tray and a porringer that, according to family legend, were given to an ancestor of mine by Hetty Green. When my mother, Carolyn Slack, showed me the items a couple of years ago, with the suggestion that I consider writing a book about Hetty, I had only the vaguest idea of who she was talking about. I half recalled something from the
Guinness Book of World Records
about “world’s greatest miser.” Unfortunately, the tray and porringer contain neither inscription nor initials, and must remain the stuff of family legend. But the story was enough to set me on my way to writing this book, and I have become even more of a believer than before in the wisdom of that simple phrase: Listen to your mother.

My research began where Hetty’s life did, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and several people and institutions helped me. Edie Nichols was a small business owner who worked diligently over the past decade to keep Hetty’s name alive in her hometown through public appearances and a privately run
museum. When I first called Edie, she might have dismissed me as an interloper. Instead, she greeted me warmly on many occasions, introduced me to people and resources, and even gave me a guided tour of the city. When Edie died in April 2005, Hetty Green lost her most passionate and vocal supporter, New Bedford lost a small treasure of a museum, and I, along with many others, lost a friend.

Dr. Stuart M. Frank and the staff at the Kendall Institute (part of the New Bedford Whaling Museum) gave me time and space to examine their remarkable collection of whaling books; their thick, bound volume of the Howland will trial; Howland family records; and other materials. At the New Bedford Public Library, then-archivist Ernestina Furtado directed me to books, papers, and maps that helped me to re-create the New Bedford of Hetty’s childhood, and to fascinating documents related directly to Hetty and her family. Paul Cyr of the library staff located and copied several of the photographs that appear in this book.

Llewellyn Howland III, an author, editor, and publisher who is an indirect relation to Hetty Green, shared his extensive knowledge of the New Bedford Howlands and his thoughts on Hetty, and pointed me toward several crucial books and other sources. He also introduced me to two people in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts (home to the Greens’ Round Hill estate), who were particularly helpful. Captain Noel Hill, the son of Ned Green’s Round Hill caretaker Bert Hill, invited me into his home and gave me unrestricted access to his remarkable collection of papers, photographs, and other documents related to Colonel Green and Round Hill. Barbara Fortin Bedell, a resident of one of the homes on the Round Hill estate, shared her knowledge of the Colonel, much of which is collected in her excellent book,
Colonel Edward Howland
Robinson
Green and the World He Created at Round Hill.

In New York City, I owe thanks to the staff of the New-York Historical Society, where I spent a great deal of time scanning microfilm copies of New York newspapers and poring over
books on New York history. The New York Public Library was another vital resource for period newspapers and journals, as well as several hard-to-find books. The Museum of American Financial History is a small gem located on lower Broadway, a stone’s throw from the site of the old Chemical National Bank and Hetty’s other Wall Street haunts. I found many helpful books, bank records, and other materials in the museum’s library, with the help of assistant director Meg Ventrudo. Shelley Diamond of the JP Morgan Chase Archives Department in lower Manhattan located and copied historical information on Chemical National Bank, including lists of depositors from Hetty’s time, photographs, and so forth.

In Bellows Falls, Vermont, Chris Burchstead of the Rockingham Free Public Library pointed me to thick files of clippings on Hetty and her family, and allowed me to examine original letters and other items in the library’s second-floor museum. Local historian Robert Ashcroft gave me a tour of Bellows Falls. Thanks also to Rockingham town clerk Doreen Aldrich, and Wanda Blanchard of the Westminster Probate Court for their help in locating and copying birth and death records, wills, deeds, and other records.

Robert Foster, of the Hoboken Historical Museum in New Jersey, showed me around Hoboken, helped me visualize the town as it would have appeared during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and shared his bountiful knowledge of local history. In neighboring Jersey City, I owe thanks to Joseph Donnelly and Bruce Brandt of the Jersey City Library.

Thanks also to James McCord of the Terrell Heritage Society in Terrell, Texas; Helen Nichols Battleson of Urbanna, Virginia, a descendant and genealogist of the Robinson family; and to the Historical Society of the town of Greenwich. The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, Harvard University Law Library, Harvard’s Widener Library, the Library of Congress, and the Trumbull Public Library in Connecticut all opened their doors to me.

I owe immeasurable thanks to my wife, Barbara, for her constant support and encouragement through my highs and lows, and to my daughters, Natalie and Caroline, who make life so sweet, and to JoAnn and Anthony DiPanni. Among those who read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions are my father, Warner Slack, physician, teacher, and author, whose steadfast support and encouragement continue to amaze me; Dean King, who has shown me by his example how to be a professional writer of books; and Claudio Phillips, a trusted friend and wise reader.

I must also thank my agent and friend Andrew Blauner, a wise and gentle guide for the past seven years. Julia Serebrinsky, my editor at Ecco Press, took enthusiastic interest from the start, and her careful editing of the manuscript improved it greatly. And thanks to her assistant, Gheña Glijansky, for her cheerful competence throughout.

C
HARLES
S
LACK
is the author of
Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century
, named one of the New York Public Library’s twenty-five “Books to Remember” for 2002, and
Blue Fairways: Three
Months,
Sixty
Courses,
No
Mulligans. His writing has appeared in many national magazines. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Barbara, and their daughters, Natalie and Caroline.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

“During her lifetime, journalists were quick to describe her as the ‘least happy woman in New York,’ but Slack appears to get it right. ‘In the end,’ he says, ‘her principle crime seems to have been that the rules she chose to live by were her own rather than society’s.’ … Which practically makes you want to say, ‘You go, girl!’”

—
New York Times Book Review

“This book is more than the story of an eccentric, driven woman; it is a window on the country between the Civil War and World War I, when great fortunes were made—even by a woman.”

—
USA Today

“Using the effortless prose and pacing of a novelist … Charles Slack has taken the
Guinness Book’s
cartoon villain and transformed her into a compelling, if often contradictory, character, a product of the Victorian age, but also a woman well ahead of her time…. More than a skillful character study … [Hetty] offers a glimpse into Manhattan high society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries…. [A] page-turning portrait of an important and complicated woman … [and] the economic forces that mold people and places.”

—
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“A fascinating book.”

—
New York Post

“Gossipy yet enlightening.”

—
Elle
Readers’ Prize 2005

“A lively and engaging portrait of the nineteenth century’s Martha Stewart—Hetty Green, the irascible and ruthless female tycoon who took Wall Street by storm…. This detailed account will no doubt delight readers of nineteenth-century financial history and anyone who likes a good story.”

—
Library Journal

“A wonderfully detailed new biography…. Today’s vilified moguls look like pussycats compared with Hetty, who was known in her day as the Witch of Wall Street.”

—
Forbes

“[A] nuanced portrait.”

—
Newsweek

“Slack concentrates on telling a good story and telling it well…. [An] entertaining biography.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating…. Hetty portrays the so-called Witch of Wall Street as an extremely intelligent woman who was tough and gifted enough to build one of America’s most impressive fortunes.”

—
Tucson Citizen

“[An] instructive account of a cash-crazy financier whose wealth could never exceed her dreams of avarice…. Slack offers an exemplary retelling for a new generation.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“The most successful female financier of the early twentieth century was a woman most of us never heard of named Hetty Green. Charles Slack has written an enormously readable book about a brilliant, avaricious, and complicated woman who accumulated vast wealth and bested some of Wall Street’s most notable players. The story of her life is a fascinating snapshot of how ambition and greed provided unique success in an era not known for female financial accomplishment.”

—Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and bestselling author of
Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Want You to Know

“Written with grace and authority, Hetty—Charles Slack’s follow-up to the splendid Noble
Obsession—
further establishes Slack not just as a worthy chronicler of the roots of American business but also of the American story itself—and of the fascinating, unquenchable men and women who people it.”

—Dean King, author of Skeletons on
the Zahara: A True Story of Survival

“In his new book, Charles Slack gives us, at long last, a truly rounded portrait of one of the most fascinating characters in Wall Street, or, indeed, American history. In doing so, he rescues from caricature the uniquely gifted and uniquely sad Hetty Green.”

—John Steele Gordon, author of
The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power
, 1653–2000

“Want to be a tycoon? Hetty, Charles Slack’s riveting history of America’s pioneering billionairess, tells you how. As a cautionary tale of Hetty Green’s iconoclastic, emotionally pinched life, and an inspiring one of an early twentieth-century woman tougher than any man, Hetty is a must read for all aspiring moguls.”