‹ The Hall of RecordsEntered into the record July 28, 2026

HISTORICAL RECORD · A DEMONSTRATIONFinance1834 to 1916

Filed under

The Witch of Wall Street. [A1]The Indianapolis journal (Indianapolis, Ind.), February 19, 1889, Image 2, column item "Mrs. Hetty Green's Millions"Library of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the Indiana State Library)class A · read 2026-07-28

Lifted off the instrument

Mandate of the United States Supreme Court, 1870, in the suit of Edward H. Green and Hetty H. Green against the executor of the Sylvia Ann Howland estate. — [A12]National Archives at Boston, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of District Courts of the United States (Record Group 21), Case Files1870Use Restriction(s): Unrestricted; Access Restriction(s): Unrestrictedread 2026-07-29Resized from 2365x3812 to 1365x2200 (fit inside, long edge 2200) and converted from JPEG to WebP at quality 80. No crop, no retouching, no compositing.

The record

Newspapers gave her the name. The same press recorded the work: a check for $1,100,000 handed to the Controller of the City of New York for its special revenue bonds, in the financial storm of October 1907. [A2]New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"Library of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

Hetty Howland Robinson Green

Hetty Howland Robinson Green worked from a base at the Chemical Bank in New York and dealt directly in the debt of the City of New York, buying its special revenue bonds across the counter of the Controller's office. [A2]New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"Library of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

Measured

What the record counts

$1,100,000: The check her clerk carried from the Chemical Bank to the Controller of the City of New York on October 23, 1907, exchanged for the city's special revenue bonds [A2]New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"Library of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28
$20,000,000: The floor of the Wall Street estimates of her fortune printed on the day she died. The ceiling printed the same day was $100,000,000, and officials of the Chemical National Bank declined to hazard a guess about the size of the estate [A4]Evening times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), July 3, 1916, Image 1, death report of Mrs. Hetty GreenLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28
9 millions: What contemporary accounts at her death said her father left her: one million outright and the income from the other eight, the principal held in trust for her children [A5]Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), July 6, 1916, Image 9, report of the death of Mrs. Hetty Green and of the funeral arrangements at Bellows FallsLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the University of Vermont)class A · read 2026-07-28
1/2 the Howland estate: The share of the income she took for life under the trusts of her aunt's probated will, in place of owning the estate itself [B1]"The Howland Will Case", The American Law Register (1852-1891), reprinting an extract from The American Law ReviewInternet Archive, JSTOR Early Journal Contentclass B · read 2026-07-28
78: Her age on November 21, 1912, the day she was reported at work in her office as usual, at a desk at the head of Wall Street [A3]Evening star (Washington, D.C.), November 21, 1912, Image 2, "Mrs. Hetty Green Is 78", birthday interview at her officeLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

Record boundary

What the sources establish

Sources read: 14
Primary or institutional: 13
Distinct sources cited on this page: 12
Works of record: 4

Where the sources do not settle a question, this record does not answer it. Nothing above is inferred from anything else on the page.

What the record declines

That "the Witch of Wall Street" is a description of the woman.

It is a name newspapers printed, not a finding about her. The record carries it as a label with a paper and a date attached, and answers it with transactions that carry the same kind of paper and date. It is never this page's own voice. [A1]The Indianapolis journal (Indianapolis, Ind.), February 19, 1889, Image 2, column item "Mrs. Hetty Green's Millions"Library of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the Indiana State Library)class A · read 2026-07-28

Checked: The phrase was located in print within her lifetime: a New York letter carried by The Indianapolis Journal on February 19, 1889 calls her the eccentric old lady sometimes referred to by that name. The label is recorded as printed and not adopted.

That the Howland will case established that she forged her aunt's signature.

The reported decision expressly declined to decide it. The court stated that it did not become necessary to determine whether the paper was or was not genuine, and dismissed the bill on the ground that, assuming all the papers to be genuine, the evidence failed to prove the contract alleged, together with a ruling that she was not a competent witness under the statutes then in force. [A10]Federal Cases, Volume 20, full-text scan: Robinson v. Mandell et al., Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027, 3 Cliff. 169, Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts, October 1868Internet Archive, United States Government Documents collectionclass A · read 2026-07-28

Checked: The opinion of Clifford, Circuit Justice, in Robinson v. Mandell, Case No. 11,959, read in full at 20 Fed. Cas. pages 1027 to 1034 in the digitized Federal Cases volume, through to the closing line dismissing the bill of complaint with costs.

That her son lost his leg because she would not pay a doctor.

The record declines it. No source in this bibliography states that it happened, and none supplies a cause or a motive for it. A claim about a named person's medical treatment and about what his mother intended is exactly the kind of assertion this record will not carry on the strength of an anecdote, in either direction. [A6]Richmond times-dispatch (Richmond, Va.), July 4, 1916, Image 11, continuation of the death report of Mrs. Hetty GreenLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

Checked: The long contemporary accounts of her life published at her death, which name her son, follow the family, and itemise the money, carry no such episode. A search of the Library of Congress newspaper corpus for contemporary reporting of it returned nothing usable. Absence is recorded here as absence, not as a denial that anything happened to him.

That her frugality has a name: a superlative awarded by a later editor, such as the world's greatest miser, or a diagnosis applied to her at a century's distance.

The record holds documents, not a mind. No contemporary or institutional source cited here records any diagnosis of her, and a title assigned by an editor is a fact about the editor. This record carries no retrospective medical claim about a person who cannot answer one. [A4]Evening times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), July 3, 1916, Image 1, death report of Mrs. Hetty GreenLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

Checked: The only medical statement in the contemporary record cited here is the report on the day of her death that she had suffered three strokes of paralysis in the preceding two months and had been unable to walk for some weeks. Nothing beyond that is stated, so nothing beyond that is carried.

The record

Hetty Howland Robinson Green has a source page.

The same renderer a customer's published page mounts, drawing the same facts this room holds the sources for. Everything below is its apparatus.

View the record →sourceofyou.com/hetty-green

One record, two views

The apparatus

What stands behind the record: the works and who holds them, the claims this record refuses, every source read and when, and the gate stack this figure passed before a page was compiled.

Works

Works of record

Each work is listed with the institution that holds it and the rights statement that institution publishes, quoted as written.

1907

Special revenue bonds of the City of New York [A2]New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"Library of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

A check for $1,100,000 carried from the Chemical Bank to the Controller's office and exchanged for the city's special revenue bonds, printed by the New-York Tribune the following morning under a heading reporting that the city had been handed a check for that amount.

Held by: Library of Congress, Chronicling America
Rights, as published: Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."

1868

Robinson v. Mandell, Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027 [A10]Federal Cases, Volume 20, full-text scan: Robinson v. Mandell et al., Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027, 3 Cliff. 169, Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts, October 1868Internet Archive, United States Government Documents collectionclass A · read 2026-07-28

Her suit over her aunt's estate in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts, also reported at 3 Cliff. 169. The bill of complaint was dismissed with costs, and the court expressly declined to decide whether the disputed paper was genuine.

Held by: Internet Archive, United States Government Documents collection
Rights, as published: Internet Archive item license field, quoted verbatim: "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/". The volume is a reporter of decisions of the courts of the United States, held in the site's United States Government Documents collection.

1916

The Chemical National Bank headquarters [A6]Richmond times-dispatch (Richmond, Va.), July 4, 1916, Image 11, continuation of the death report of Mrs. Hetty GreenLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

The bank in which she made her downtown headquarters. Asked at her death to estimate the size of her estate, its officials declined to hazard a guess.

Held by: Library of Congress, Chronicling America
Rights, as published: Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."

1910

The Texas Midland Railroad [A9]The Washington herald (Washington, D.C.), August 14, 1910, Third Part, Image 19, feature on Edward H. R. Green and the Texas Midland railroadLibrary of Congress, Chronicling Americaclass A · read 2026-07-28

The Washington Herald reported that her son Edward H. R. Green, president of the Texas Midland railroad, had been sent to Texas seventeen years earlier to look after her interests in the state, and was then coming to New York to carry part of her business.

Held by: Library of Congress, Chronicling America
Rights, as published: Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."

Sources

Class A is primary or institutional archival material. Class B is scholarly secondary work, cited with edition and page, and used only where class A could not be reached. Every source below was read at the URL given, on the date given.

[A1]Class A
The Indianapolis journal (Indianapolis, Ind.), February 19, 1889, Image 2, column item "Mrs. Hetty Green's Millions"
Library of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the Indiana State Library)
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015679/1889-02-19/ed-1/?sp=2read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A2]Class A
New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1907-10-24/ed-1/?sp=5read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A3]Class A
Evening star (Washington, D.C.), November 21, 1912, Image 2, "Mrs. Hetty Green Is 78", birthday interview at her office
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1912-11-21/ed-1/?sp=2read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A4]Class A
Evening times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), July 3, 1916, Image 1, death report of Mrs. Hetty Green
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85049554/1916-07-03/ed-1/?sp=1read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A5]Class A
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), July 6, 1916, Image 9, report of the death of Mrs. Hetty Green and of the funeral arrangements at Bellows Falls
Library of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the University of Vermont)
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86072143/1916-07-06/ed-1/?sp=9read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A6]Class A
Richmond times-dispatch (Richmond, Va.), July 4, 1916, Image 11, continuation of the death report of Mrs. Hetty Green
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045389/1916-07-04/ed-1/?sp=11read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A7]Class A
New-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), July 12, 1918, Image 9, "Court Upholds Fight for Hetty Green Tax"
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-07-12/ed-1/?sp=9read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A8]Class A
Los Angeles herald (Los Angeles, Calif.), September 25, 1905, Image 3, "Hetty Green Advises Investors"
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85042462/1905-09-25/ed-1/?sp=3read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A9]Class A
The Washington herald (Washington, D.C.), August 14, 1910, Third Part, Image 19, feature on Edward H. R. Green and the Texas Midland railroad
Library of Congress, Chronicling America
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045433/1910-08-14/ed-1/?sp=19read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."
[A10]Class A
Federal Cases, Volume 20, full-text scan: Robinson v. Mandell et al., Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027, 3 Cliff. 169, Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts, October 1868
Internet Archive, United States Government Documents collection
https://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.fedcases.20/Federal_Cases_20_djvu.txtread 2026-07-28
Internet Archive item license field, quoted verbatim: "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/". The volume is a reporter of decisions of the courts of the United States, held in the site's United States Government Documents collection.
[A11]Class A
"Hetty Green's residence, Bellows Falls, Vt.", Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection, negative no. 070087, call number LC-D4-70087
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
https://www.loc.gov/item/2016813761/read 2026-07-28
Library of Congress rights advisory, quoted verbatim: "No known restrictions on publication." The catalogue record adds that the Library believes many of the papers in the Detroit Publishing Company collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions.
[B1]Class B
"The Howland Will Case", The American Law Register (1852-1891), reprinting an extract from The American Law Review
Internet Archive, JSTOR Early Journal Content. The American Law Register (1852-1891), Volume 38, September 1890, pages 562 to 581, reprinting The American Law Review, volume 4, pages 629 to 654. The filing date of December 2, 1865 and the November term, 1865 affirmance appear at page 562; the editor's closing note recording the trust outcome appears at page 581.
https://archive.org/download/jstor-3305329/3305329_djvu.txtread 2026-07-28
JSTOR Early Journal Content statement printed on the scan, quoted verbatim: "We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial purposes." The underlying article was published in 1890; only facts are taken from it here, and no expression.
[A12]Class A
Robinson, Hetty H. v. Mandell, Thomas et al (first page of the United States Supreme Court mandate)
National Archives at Boston, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of District Courts of the United States (Record Group 21), Case Files
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7296821read 2026-07-29
Use Restriction(s): Unrestricted; Access Restriction(s): Unrestricted
[A13]Class A
Mrs. Hetty Green
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
https://www.loc.gov/item/2014680543/read 2026-07-29
No known restrictions on publication. For more information, see George Grantham Bain Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/274_bain.html

Clearance

How this record was cleared

Every record in the Hall passes the same gate stack before a page is compiled, and the result is published rather than merely filed.

Died: 1916
Public domain basis: Every document cited here was published in the United States before 1930: newspaper pages the Library of Congress states are in the public domain or carry no known copyright restrictions, a volume of United States federal court reports held in the Internet Archive's government documents collection, a photographic negative carrying the Library's advisory of no known restrictions on publication, and one periodical article of 1890 used for facts only.
Estate and licensing screen: Screened 2026-07-28. No enforcing estate, licensing agent, or rights representative for Hetty Howland Robinson Green was identified. What the record shows is that her own estate was administered through the New York and Vermont courts, with the transfer-tax valuation still before the appraiser in July 1918, and nothing found indicates a successor entity licensing her name today. The screen was limited to the institutional sources listed here, because no general web search was available in this session, and it is recorded with that limit rather than as an exhaustive clearance.
Trademark screen: Screened 2026-07-28, with a negative result that is scoped rather than absolute. The USPTO public trademark search endpoints were unreachable from this session, returning 404 and 301, so no live federal register result is recorded and none is claimed. Nothing here reproduces a mark, a logo, or trade dress: the name appears only as the name of a person who died in 1916, inside a cited archival record. If a live federal mark on the name is later found, this record takes the no-affiliation line.
Dignity screen: This is the most heavily mythologised figure in the register, and most of what is popularly written about her is character writing rather than record, so three rules were applied. First, the nickname the press gave her is carried only as a label, with the paper and the date on which it was printed, and never as this page's own voice. Second, no retrospective diagnosis appears anywhere here, and the whole class of claim is refused in the declines; the only medical statement carried is the one contemporary reports made in her final months. Third, the anecdote about her son's amputation is not repeated as an anecdote, because no source in this bibliography establishes what happened or why, so it appears only in the declines, stated as the legend it is and refused there. Figures are given only where a source states them, and where the sources disagree, as they do about the size of the fortune and about the day in November on which she was born, the disagreement is what the record reports.
Gate stack run: 2026-07-28

The machine record

The structured representation this page is built from, printed field by field.

Every row below is a field of this figure's module, printed with its value and the citation key that settles it. Nothing here is summarised or inferred. It is shown as text for a reader: this page emits no machine-readable metadata, and it is excluded from the sitemap, from llms.txt, and from search indexes.

identity

slughetty-green

handlehetty-green

nameHetty Howland Robinson Green

disciplineFinance

entered2026-07-28

accent#14523F

claims

labelThe Witch of Wall Street. [A1]

turnNewspapers gave her the name. The same press recorded the work: a check for $1,100,000 handed to the Controller of the City of New York for its special revenue bonds, in the financial storm of October 1907. [A2]

lifespan1834 to 1916 [A4]

statementHetty Howland Robinson Green worked from a base at the Chemical Bank in New York and dealt directly in the debt of the City of New York, buying its special revenue bonds across the counter of the Controller's office. [A2]

story[7]

story[0]The reports of her death on July 3, 1916 placed her birth at New Bedford, Massachusetts, and quoted her own testimony in court for the date: "In November, 1834, about the 20th." [A4]

story[1]Her father, Edward Mott Robinson, had amassed a fortune at New Bedford and married Abby Howland, of the family whose name she carried and which had become known in the whaling industry and the shipping trade with China. [A6]

story[2]Contemporary accounts published at her death stated that she was thirty years old when her father died, leaving nine millions, one million outright and the income from the other eight with the principal held in trust for her children, and that her aunt Sylvia Ann Howland died at about the same time. [A5]

story[3]Her claim on her aunt's estate was heard in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts as Robinson v. Mandell, and in October 1868 the bill of complaint was dismissed with costs. [A10]

story[4]On October 23, 1907, with the city suspending new work until the financial storm passed, her clerk asked the Controller whether he wished to dispose of special revenue bonds and returned from the Chemical Bank with a check for $1,100,000. [A2]

story[5]On her seventy-eighth birthday, November 21, 1912, she was reported at work at her desk at the head of Wall Street, declining to treat the day as a holiday. [A3]

story[6]She died at the home of her son in New York, and her body was taken for burial at Bellows Falls, Vermont, where she had lived for many years and where funeral services were held in the Church of the Immanuel. [A5]

schedule[8]

schedule[0] [A4]

span1834

titleBorn at New Bedford

detailThe July 1916 reports of her death place her birth at New Bedford, Massachusetts, citing her own testimony in court for the date, "In November, 1834, about the 20th." She herself gave November 21, 1834 in a birthday interview in 1912, so the day is reported two ways in the record and the year is reported one way.

schedule[1] [B1]

spanDecember 2, 1865

titleBill of complaint filed

detailThen Miss Robinson, she filed a bill of complaint against the executors and trustees of Sylvia Ann Howland's estate in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. The probate decree had been affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court at the November term, 1865.

schedule[2] [A10]

spanOctober 1868

titleRobinson v. Mandell decided

detailClifford, Circuit Justice, dismissed the bill of complaint with costs. The reported opinion states that the court did not find it necessary to determine whether the disputed paper was genuine, and held that, assuming all the papers to be genuine, the evidence failed to prove the contract alleged.

schedule[3] [A1]

spanFebruary 1889

titleThe nickname in print

detailA New York letter carried by The Indianapolis Journal described her as the eccentric old lady sometimes referred to as the Witch of Wall street, and reported that her standing instruction to a broker was to buy until told to stop.

schedule[4] [A11]

spanBetween 1900 and 1910

titleThe house at Bellows Falls

detailThe Detroit Publishing Company photographed the Vermont residence on an 8 by 10 inch glass negative, catalogued by the Library of Congress as Hetty Green's residence, Bellows Falls, Vt.

schedule[5] [A2]

spanOctober 1907

titleSpecial revenue bonds of the City of New York

detailThe New-York Tribune reported the purchase the next morning: a check for $1,100,000 carried from the Chemical Bank to the Controller in the Stewart Building, at a moment when the city had suspended the registering of contracts.

schedule[6] [A3]

spanNovember 21, 1912

titleSeventy-eight, and at the desk

detailReported at work in her office as usual on her birthday, at a square little rosewood desk at the head of Wall Street.

schedule[7] [A5]

spanJuly 1916

titleDeath in New York, burial in Vermont

detailShe died on July 3 at the home of her son. Her body was taken to Bellows Falls, Vermont for burial, with services in the Church of the Immanuel.

figures[5]

figures[0] [A2]

label$1,100,000

detailThe check her clerk carried from the Chemical Bank to the Controller of the City of New York on October 23, 1907, exchanged for the city's special revenue bonds

figures[1] [A4]

label$20,000,000

detailThe floor of the Wall Street estimates of her fortune printed on the day she died. The ceiling printed the same day was $100,000,000, and officials of the Chemical National Bank declined to hazard a guess about the size of the estate

figures[2] [A5]

label9 millions

detailWhat contemporary accounts at her death said her father left her: one million outright and the income from the other eight, the principal held in trust for her children

figures[3] [B1]

label1/2 the Howland estate

detailThe share of the income she took for life under the trusts of her aunt's probated will, in place of owning the estate itself

figures[4] [A3]

label78

detailHer age on November 21, 1912, the day she was reported at work in her office as usual, at a desk at the head of Wall Street

works[4]

works[0] [A2]

titleSpecial revenue bonds of the City of New York

year1907

noteA check for $1,100,000 carried from the Chemical Bank to the Controller's office and exchanged for the city's special revenue bonds, printed by the New-York Tribune the following morning under a heading reporting that the city had been handed a check for that amount.

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1907-10-24/ed-1/?sp=5

works[1] [A10]

titleRobinson v. Mandell, Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027

year1868

noteHer suit over her aunt's estate in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts, also reported at 3 Cliff. 169. The bill of complaint was dismissed with costs, and the court expressly declined to decide whether the disputed paper was genuine.

urlhttps://archive.org/details/gov.uscourts.fedcases.20

works[2] [A6]

titleThe Chemical National Bank headquarters

year1916

noteThe bank in which she made her downtown headquarters. Asked at her death to estimate the size of her estate, its officials declined to hazard a guess.

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045389/1916-07-04/ed-1/?sp=11

works[3] [A9]

titleThe Texas Midland Railroad

year1910

noteThe Washington Herald reported that her son Edward H. R. Green, president of the Texas Midland railroad, had been sent to Texas seventeen years earlier to look after her interests in the state, and was then coming to New York to carry part of her business.

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045433/1910-08-14/ed-1/?sp=19

answers[5]

answers[0] [A10]

qWhat did the court actually decide in the Howland will case?

aSitting in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts in October 1868, Clifford, Circuit Justice, dismissed the bill of complaint with costs. The reported opinion states that the court did not reach the disputed signature: inasmuch as it did not become necessary to determine whether the paper was genuine, the court declined those questions, and held that assuming all the papers to be genuine the evidence failed to prove the contract alleged. It also held that under the statutes then governing competency she was not a competent witness to testify to any transaction with, or statement by, the testatrix.

answers[1] [A2]

qWhat did she do during the panic of October 1907?

aThe New-York Tribune reported on October 24, 1907 that her clerk had crossed Broadway from the Chemical Bank and asked the Controller whether he wished to dispose of special revenue bonds. The Controller answered that the city would sell her all she wanted, and the clerk returned to the Stewart Building with a check for $1,100,000 made payable to the Controller of the City of New York.

answers[2] [A8]

qHow did she describe her own method?

aIn an interview reprinted by the Los Angeles Herald on September 25, 1905 under the heading Hetty Green Advises Investors, she is quoted as saying "When I see a good thing going cheap because nobody wants it I buy a lot of it and tuck it away" and "There is no great secret in fortune making. All you have to do is to buy cheap and sell dear, act with thrift and shrewdness." The same interview has her stating that railroads and real estate were what she liked and that she did not buy industrials.

answers[3] [A4]

qHow large was the fortune, and was she self-made?

aThe record here settles no figure. On the day she died, Wall Street estimates ran from $20,000,000 to $100,000,000, and officials of the Chemical National Bank, where she had made her downtown headquarters, declined to hazard a guess about the size of the estate. The same report answers the second question plainly: her extremes of economy led to a popular misconception of her as a self-made woman, and as a matter of fact she was born rich.

answers[4] [A7]

qWhere was she a resident when she died, and what became of the estate?

aHer burial was at Bellows Falls, and residence then became a tax question. The New-York Tribune reported on July 12, 1918 that the State of New York still hoped to tax the $100,000,000 estate left by Mrs. Hetty Green, who died a resident of Vermont, where no transfer tax was imposed, and that the Appellate Division had remitted the transfer-tax appraisal to the appraiser for further testimony.

declines[4]

declines[0] [A1]

mythThat "the Witch of Wall Street" is a description of the woman.

refusalIt is a name newspapers printed, not a finding about her. The record carries it as a label with a paper and a date attached, and answers it with transactions that carry the same kind of paper and date. It is never this page's own voice.

checkedThe phrase was located in print within her lifetime: a New York letter carried by The Indianapolis Journal on February 19, 1889 calls her the eccentric old lady sometimes referred to by that name. The label is recorded as printed and not adopted.

declines[1] [A10]

mythThat the Howland will case established that she forged her aunt's signature.

refusalThe reported decision expressly declined to decide it. The court stated that it did not become necessary to determine whether the paper was or was not genuine, and dismissed the bill on the ground that, assuming all the papers to be genuine, the evidence failed to prove the contract alleged, together with a ruling that she was not a competent witness under the statutes then in force.

checkedThe opinion of Clifford, Circuit Justice, in Robinson v. Mandell, Case No. 11,959, read in full at 20 Fed. Cas. pages 1027 to 1034 in the digitized Federal Cases volume, through to the closing line dismissing the bill of complaint with costs.

declines[2] [A6]

mythThat her son lost his leg because she would not pay a doctor.

refusalThe record declines it. No source in this bibliography states that it happened, and none supplies a cause or a motive for it. A claim about a named person's medical treatment and about what his mother intended is exactly the kind of assertion this record will not carry on the strength of an anecdote, in either direction.

checkedThe long contemporary accounts of her life published at her death, which name her son, follow the family, and itemise the money, carry no such episode. A search of the Library of Congress newspaper corpus for contemporary reporting of it returned nothing usable. Absence is recorded here as absence, not as a denial that anything happened to him.

declines[3] [A4]

mythThat her frugality has a name: a superlative awarded by a later editor, such as the world's greatest miser, or a diagnosis applied to her at a century's distance.

refusalThe record holds documents, not a mind. No contemporary or institutional source cited here records any diagnosis of her, and a title assigned by an editor is a fact about the editor. This record carries no retrospective medical claim about a person who cannot answer one.

checkedThe only medical statement in the contemporary record cited here is the report on the day of her death that she had suffered three strokes of paralysis in the preceding two months and had been unable to walk for some weeks. Nothing beyond that is stated, so nothing beyond that is carried.

sources[14]

sources.A1 [A1]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the Indiana State Library)

titleThe Indianapolis journal (Indianapolis, Ind.), February 19, 1889, Image 2, column item "Mrs. Hetty Green's Millions"

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015679/1889-02-19/ed-1/?sp=2

accessed2026-07-28

rightsLibrary of Congress rights statement, quoted verbatim: "The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety."

sources.A2 [A2]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleNew-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), October 24, 1907, Image 5, "Hands City a Check for $1,100,000"

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1907-10-24/ed-1/?sp=5

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A3 [A3]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleEvening star (Washington, D.C.), November 21, 1912, Image 2, "Mrs. Hetty Green Is 78", birthday interview at her office

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1912-11-21/ed-1/?sp=2

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A4 [A4]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleEvening times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), July 3, 1916, Image 1, death report of Mrs. Hetty Green

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85049554/1916-07-03/ed-1/?sp=1

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A5 [A5]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America (contributed by the University of Vermont)

titleBurlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), July 6, 1916, Image 9, report of the death of Mrs. Hetty Green and of the funeral arrangements at Bellows Falls

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86072143/1916-07-06/ed-1/?sp=9

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A6 [A6]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleRichmond times-dispatch (Richmond, Va.), July 4, 1916, Image 11, continuation of the death report of Mrs. Hetty Green

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045389/1916-07-04/ed-1/?sp=11

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A7 [A7]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleNew-York tribune (New York, N.Y.), July 12, 1918, Image 9, "Court Upholds Fight for Hetty Green Tax"

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-07-12/ed-1/?sp=9

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A8 [A8]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleLos Angeles herald (Los Angeles, Calif.), September 25, 1905, Image 3, "Hetty Green Advises Investors"

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85042462/1905-09-25/ed-1/?sp=3

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A9 [A9]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Chronicling America

titleThe Washington herald (Washington, D.C.), August 14, 1910, Third Part, Image 19, feature on Edward H. R. Green and the Texas Midland railroad

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045433/1910-08-14/ed-1/?sp=19

accessed2026-07-28

sources.A10 [A10]

clsA

institutionInternet Archive, United States Government Documents collection

titleFederal Cases, Volume 20, full-text scan: Robinson v. Mandell et al., Case No. 11,959, 20 Fed. Cas. 1027, 3 Cliff. 169, Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts, October 1868

urlhttps://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.fedcases.20/Federal_Cases_20_djvu.txt

accessed2026-07-28

rightsInternet Archive item license field, quoted verbatim: "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/". The volume is a reporter of decisions of the courts of the United States, held in the site's United States Government Documents collection.

sources.A11 [A11]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

title"Hetty Green's residence, Bellows Falls, Vt.", Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection, negative no. 070087, call number LC-D4-70087

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/item/2016813761/

accessed2026-07-28

rightsLibrary of Congress rights advisory, quoted verbatim: "No known restrictions on publication." The catalogue record adds that the Library believes many of the papers in the Detroit Publishing Company collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions.

sources.B1 [B1]

clsB

institutionInternet Archive, JSTOR Early Journal Content

title"The Howland Will Case", The American Law Register (1852-1891), reprinting an extract from The American Law Review

urlhttps://archive.org/download/jstor-3305329/3305329_djvu.txt

accessed2026-07-28

rightsJSTOR Early Journal Content statement printed on the scan, quoted verbatim: "We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial purposes." The underlying article was published in 1890; only facts are taken from it here, and no expression.

editionThe American Law Register (1852-1891), Volume 38, September 1890, pages 562 to 581, reprinting The American Law Review, volume 4, pages 629 to 654. The filing date of December 2, 1865 and the November term, 1865 affirmance appear at page 562; the editor's closing note recording the trust outcome appears at page 581.

sources.A12 [A12]

clsA

institutionNational Archives at Boston, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of District Courts of the United States (Record Group 21), Case Files

titleRobinson, Hetty H. v. Mandell, Thomas et al (first page of the United States Supreme Court mandate)

urlhttps://catalog.archives.gov/id/7296821

accessed2026-07-29

rightsUse Restriction(s): Unrestricted; Access Restriction(s): Unrestricted

sources.A13 [A13]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

titleMrs. Hetty Green

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/item/2014680543/

accessed2026-07-29

rightsNo known restrictions on publication. For more information, see George Grantham Bain Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/274_bain.html

clearance

died1916

diedSrcA4

pdBasisEvery document cited here was published in the United States before 1930: newspaper pages the Library of Congress states are in the public domain or carry no known copyright restrictions, a volume of United States federal court reports held in the Internet Archive's government documents collection, a photographic negative carrying the Library's advisory of no known restrictions on publication, and one periodical article of 1890 used for facts only.

estateScreened 2026-07-28. No enforcing estate, licensing agent, or rights representative for Hetty Howland Robinson Green was identified. What the record shows is that her own estate was administered through the New York and Vermont courts, with the transfer-tax valuation still before the appraiser in July 1918, and nothing found indicates a successor entity licensing her name today. The screen was limited to the institutional sources listed here, because no general web search was available in this session, and it is recorded with that limit rather than as an exhaustive clearance.

trademarkScreened 2026-07-28, with a negative result that is scoped rather than absolute. The USPTO public trademark search endpoints were unreachable from this session, returning 404 and 301, so no live federal register result is recorded and none is claimed. Nothing here reproduces a mark, a logo, or trade dress: the name appears only as the name of a person who died in 1916, inside a cited archival record. If a live federal mark on the name is later found, this record takes the no-affiliation line.

dignityThis is the most heavily mythologised figure in the register, and most of what is popularly written about her is character writing rather than record, so three rules were applied. First, the nickname the press gave her is carried only as a label, with the paper and the date on which it was printed, and never as this page's own voice. Second, no retrospective diagnosis appears anywhere here, and the whole class of claim is refused in the declines; the only medical statement carried is the one contemporary reports made in her final months. Third, the anecdote about her son's amputation is not repeated as an anecdote, because no source in this bibliography establishes what happened or why, so it appears only in the declines, stated as the legend it is and refused there. Figures are given only where a source states them, and where the sources disagree, as they do about the size of the fortune and about the day in November on which she was born, the disagreement is what the record reports.

checkedAt2026-07-28

HISTORICAL RECORD · A DEMONSTRATION

A demonstration record, compiled from public archives. Every line on this page carries its source. Hetty Howland Robinson Green did not write it; the institutions cited here did.

Corrections are wanted, and they are treated the way a falsehood on any Source of You page is treated: they jump the queue. If a line here is wrong, or a source is misread, write to hello@sourceofyou.com and the page comes down while it is checked.