July 3 - Famous Miser: The Witch of Wall Street Dies with $100 Million Fortune
Beyond the Illusion of Control
This is the day Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green, the world's richest woman and notorious miser known as the "Witch of Wall Street," died of a stroke at her son's New York City home in 1916.
In today's lesson, we will explore how the desire for control can shift from biblical wisdom to spiritual bondage, and discover the freedom that comes from holding our plans with open hands. When does our grip on circumstances become a cage that traps us? What happens when we confuse faithful stewardship with fearful self-reliance? The story of history's richest woman, whose final moments were spent arguing over skimmed milk, reveals the hidden danger in trusting our own management more than God's sovereignty.
"This is what the Lord says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.'" - Jeremiah 17:5 (NIV)
This Date in History
The argument erupted over something as trivial as skimmed milk. Hetty Green, eighty-one years old and worth over $100 million, stood in her son's New York City home on July 3, 1916, locked in heated dispute with a household servant about the merits of watered-down dairy. The woman who had dominated Wall Street for decades, who had bailed out banks and cities during financial panics, who had turned a $10 million inheritance into a fortune equivalent to billions today, would not yield on this small domestic matter. Within moments, the strain proved too much. She collapsed from the stroke that would end her life.
Born Henrietta Howland Robinson in 1834 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, she had entered a world designed to limit women's financial independence. Her Quaker whaling family possessed vast wealth, but young Hetty quickly learned that money meant power and security. Her grandfather's failing eyesight became her opportunity. By age six, she was reading financial newspapers aloud to him, absorbing market terminology and investment strategies that most men never mastered. Her father continued this unconventional education, teaching her to analyze shipping manifests, calculate profits, and evaluate risk. When other girls her age were learning embroidery, Hetty was learning compound interest.
The deaths of her father and maternal aunt in 1865 brought her a $10 million inheritance, but also ignited a bitter five-year legal battle over her aunt's will. Family members contested a second will that would have given Hetty the entire estate, eventually proving it a forgery. The experience taught her never to trust anyone completely with financial matters. In 1867, she married Edward Henry Green, a wealthy silk merchant, but insisted on keeping their finances entirely separate. The couple lived in London for several years while various relatives pursued legal action against Hetty, returning to the United States only when the legal threats subsided.
Hetty's investment philosophy crystallized during the volatile post-Civil War economy. She bought when others sold in panic, held when others rushed to liquidate, and maintained massive cash reserves when others leveraged themselves to the limit. During the railroad boom of the 1870s, she acquired undervalued railroad bonds while other investors chased speculative opportunities. When the Panic of 1893 devastated countless fortunes, she emerged stronger, her careful preparation allowing her to purchase distressed assets at rock-bottom prices. By 1907, her financial wisdom had become legendary. When New York City faced bankruptcy and traditional banks refused to help, Hetty stepped forward with a loan that saved the municipal government.
Her personal habits, however, made her a figure of fascination and scorn. She wore the same black dress for years until it fell apart, lived in modest quarters despite her vast wealth, and reportedly heated her oatmeal on the radiator to avoid paying for cooking fuel. When her son Ned injured his leg as a child, she sought free medical treatment at charity clinics rather than pay for private physicians. The delay allegedly contributed to the eventual amputation of his leg, though this story may have been exaggerated by hostile newspapers. Her extreme frugality earned her the title "Witch of Wall Street," though some colleagues who respected her financial acumen preferred "Queen of Wall Street."
The final years of her life brought some softening. She was baptized in the Episcopal Church so she could be buried beside her husband Edward in an Episcopal cemetery. At age seventy-eight, she began preparing for death, organizing her affairs and training her son to manage the fortune she would leave behind. The Webster Company, established in 1910, took over much of the day-to-day management of her investments. Yet even as her health declined through a series of minor strokes, her fierce independence remained. On that July morning in 1916, arguing over skimmed milk with a servant, Hetty Green lived her final moments exactly as she had lived for eight decades, surrendering control to no one.
Historical Context
The America of Hetty Green's era was undergoing dramatic economic transformation that created both unprecedented opportunities and devastating financial panics. The post-Civil War period saw explosive industrial growth, railroad expansion, and the emergence of modern financial markets, but this rapid development came with extreme volatility. The Panic of 1873 alone caused over 11,000 companies to go bankrupt and forced the New York Stock Exchange to close for ten days. Traditional banking systems repeatedly failed during these crises, creating opportunities for investors with substantial cash reserves and steady nerves to acquire valuable assets at deeply discounted prices.
Women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries faced severe legal and social restrictions regarding financial independence. Most states operated under coverture laws, which transferred a woman's property to her husband upon marriage. Hetty's insistence on keeping her finances separate from her husband's was highly unusual and required careful legal maneuvering. The financial world was exclusively male-dominated, making her success even more remarkable. Her nickname "Witch of Wall Street" reflected both admiration for her abilities and the discomfort many men felt about a woman operating successfully in their domain. By her death in 1916, she had proven that a woman could not only survive but thrive in high-stakes finance, paving the way for future generations of female investors.
Did You Know?
By age eight, Hetty Green had opened her first bank account with money saved from her allowance, and at thirteen, she became the family's official bookkeeper, demonstrating her remarkable early aptitude for financial management.
During the Panic of 1907, Hetty Green was the only woman invited to attend the critical emergency meeting with J.P. Morgan and leading banking executives at the height of the crisis. She had predicted the economic collapse well in advance, stating "I saw this situation developing three years ago," and positioned herself with large cash reserves specifically to provide emergency loans.
The widely reported story about Hetty's frugality causing her son Ned's leg amputation may have been exaggerated by hostile media. According to Roberta Sawyer, who grew up at Round Hill and spoke with Hetty's daughter Sylvia, "The truth is that Hetty Green went around with her son for three days trying to find a doctor who felt he could save Ned's leg instead of amputating it."
Hetty's investment strategy, which she described as "I buy when things are low and nobody wants them. I keep them until they go up and people are crazy to get them," would later become known as "contrarian investing," but at the time it was revolutionary. She turned an annual profit of $1.25 million and once earned $200,000 in a single day.
Despite her reputation as a miser, Hetty was a secret philanthropist who avoided press attention, stating "I believe in discreet charity." There are countless stories of her caring for neighbors in boarding houses, and she once bandaged a delivery man who had fallen from his carriage in London while onlookers watched him bleed.
Today’s Reflection
The argument erupted over skimmed milk.
Hetty Green, worth over $100 million and known as the world's richest woman, collapsed from a stroke on July 3, 1916, during a disagreement with a servant in her son's New York home. She never recovered.
It's a startling end for a woman who had mastered the markets, negotiated with titans of industry, and built a fortune through extraordinary discipline and control. She was decisive, shrewd, and often frugal to a fault. But in her final recorded moment, control failed her. The disagreement that triggered her collapse was over something utterly trivial.
That detail lingers. Not because skimmed milk matters, but because it invites a deeper question: When does our desire for control shift from wisdom to spiritual bondage?
Jeremiah 17:5 (NIV) gives us a sobering warning: "This is what the Lord says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.'"
This curse isn't about skill or diligence. It's not a condemnation of wise planning. It's a warning about where we place our ultimate trust and what we lean on when the future feels uncertain.
As Christians, we're called to be faithful stewards. Scripture commends hard work, foresight, and responsibility. These are not optional virtues; they're part of Christian maturity. Yet in our pursuit of being prepared, we can quietly begin to believe that our safety depends on us, our planning, our performance, our ability to stay ahead of every risk.
We trade trust for control, and don't notice until something slips beyond our reach.
You may know the feeling. You build budgets, set goals, monitor progress. You save for the unexpected. You try to think three steps ahead. All good things. But what happens when the unexpected still comes? When loss hits, or plans fail, or nothing works the way it should?
Do you rest in God's sovereignty or scramble to regain control?
That distinction reveals whether you're walking in biblical stewardship or drifting into quiet self-reliance.
Matthew 11:28 (NIV) gives us a different path: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Jesus doesn't ask us to abandon responsibility. He invites us to stop carrying it alone. True rest doesn't come from the illusion of perfect control. It comes from the reality of His perfect love.
Our modern lives make this harder. We have apps for everything. Real-time data. Precision tools. We can track investments by the hour and count calories by the gram. We can measure, monitor, plan, and revise every detail of life.
But that power to manage also tempts us to believe we're in charge. And when life defies control, anxiety floods in.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) reminds us where strength is truly found: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"
God doesn't wait for us to have everything figured out. He meets us in the places where we finally admit we can't do it on our own. His grace shines brightest when we stop striving for control and start trusting Him instead.
The danger isn't in being organized. It's in letting our sense of security rise or fall based on how tightly we can manage what happens next. Control, when it becomes our comfort, turns into an idol. And idols always disappoint.
So ask yourself: where are you clinging too tightly? What part of your life have you insulated from God's voice because you're too busy managing it?
You don't have to swing to passivity. You don't have to let go of responsibility. You're invited to hold your plans in open hands, trusting the God who never lets go of you.
Hetty Green's final moments over skimmed milk remind us: what we fight hardest to control often matters least in the scope of eternity. The invitation of Christ is not just to plan well but to rest deeply. Not just to manage what we can but to trust the One who sees what we can't.
That's where freedom begins.
Practical Application
Identify one area of your life where you've been operating from fear-driven control rather than faith-based stewardship, then practice releasing your grip by setting aside fifteen minutes each morning this week to pray specifically about that area, asking God to show you the difference between wise planning and anxious controlling. End each prayer by physically opening your hands as a symbol of releasing that concern to His care, then throughout the day when anxiety about that area resurfaces, return to that physical gesture of open hands as a reminder that God holds what you cannot control.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You hold all things in Your hands, even when our own hands tremble with the weight of trying to control what was never ours to manage. We confess that too often we have trusted in our own understanding, leaning on our ability to plan and prepare rather than resting in Your perfect provision and timing. Forgive us for the subtle ways we have made idols of our own control, believing that our security flows from our management rather than from Your unchanging character.
Lord, teach us the difference between faithful stewardship and fearful self-reliance. Help us to hold our plans with open hands, working diligently while trusting deeply. When circumstances shift beyond our control, remind us that they have never been beyond Yours. Grant us the courage to release what we cannot change and the wisdom to steward well what You have entrusted to our care. May we find our rest not in the perfection of our plans but in the perfect love of our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Final Thoughts
The most dangerous cages are often the ones we build ourselves, convincing ourselves they're fortresses. True spiritual maturity isn't measured by how tightly we can grip our circumstances, but by how completely we can trust the One who grips us. When we mistake control for faithfulness, we trade the freedom of surrender for the exhaustion of self-reliance. God's invitation is clear: come with your plans, but hold them lightly. Work with your hands, but rest in His. The same hands that formed the universe are gentle enough to hold your worries and strong enough to carry your burdens.
Also On This Date In History
July 3 - Gettysburg's Monumental Price: The Stunning Battle That Turned the Civil War
This is the day the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle ever fought on the American continent, ended in a major victory for the Union during the U.S. Civil War in 1863.
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Wow. Sounds like a pretty miserable life . . . 😟
Very good! We, my wife and I, are finally learning to