Gilded age

I’ll be taking a bit of time off as we approach July 4. But I didn’t want to risk this week passing without comment, because it will mark the date, 104 years ago, that Hetty Green departed the bounds of this Earth.

Don’t know her? I’m sure some readers will prove to be exceptions, but frankly it’s also part of the point.

During America’s Gilded Age, from say sometime in the 1870s or so to 1900, Hetty Green was known as the wealthiest woman in America.

Born Henrietta Howland Robinson, she came from a family that had “made millions with their whaling fleet and shipping interests” in New Bedford, Massachusetts, according to a biographer. So, she started out with an enormous head start in life, inheriting the modern equivalent of about $100 million.

She grew her fortune aggressively through investments to what in 2020 would be about $2 billion—potentially even more, because she was aggressive and effective at hiding her ownership of property to avoid tax.

Hetty was quite famous in her time…