My thanks to the dedicated librarians and archivists around the country who dug through their collections for material: the staff of the New Bedford Free Public Library; Laura Peraira at the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library; Elaine Grubin at the Massachusetts Historical Society; reference librarian Emily Zervas and the staff at the Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls; James McCord at the Terrell Historical Society; Greg Ames of the Mercantile Library in St. Louis; the staff of the Morristown Library; Marsha Bissett and others at the Barnard Archives of Columbia University; the library staff at the New-York Historical Society; Kirsten Aguilera of the Museum of American Finance; Kristin McDonough, director of the SIBL branch of the New York Public Library, and the librarians of the NYPL; Patrice Kane of the Fordham University Archives; the librarians at the Tamiment Library of New York University and the Brooklyn Historical Society; and the staffs of the British Library and the British Newspaper Library in London. My enormous gratitude to Mark Bartlett, Carolyn Waters, and the incredible staff of the New York Society Library. Thanks also to David Kelso of JPMorgan Chase, and to Ronay Menschel for her introduction to Sarah Henry at the Museum of the City of New York.
In Bellows Falls the spirited Shirley Capron put me in touch with Ann Fitzgerald, Arthur Bolles, Betty Johnson, Robert Adams, and others whose families had known Hetty Green. Ann Collins of Village Square Books, Michael Reynolds, and the clerks Brenda and Doreen at Town Hall were all helpful.
Many people informed me on different parts of Hetty’s life: Llewyn Howland shed light on her Quaker background and how it affected her. Susan Yohn of Hofstra University gave me perspective on Hetty’s importance as a woman and the price she paid for it. Dr. Mary Elizabeth Brown of Marymount helped with information on Annie Leary; Richard Sylla at New York University opened my eyes to The Wizard of Oz; John Steel Gordon helped with the Union Club and Wall Street; Maury Klein was informative on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Scott Reynolds Nelson at William and Mary College advised me on nineteenth-century finance; Melanie Gustafson at the University of Vermont made excellent suggestions on Hetty Green’s childhood and her relationships; Andrew Ross Sorkin was enlightening on the contemporary financial panic.
My thanks to the autograph dealers and collectors Scott Winslow, Scott Trepel, David Beach, and Ron Terlizzi. Richard John at the Columbia Journalism School led me to valuable sources. Lavinia Briggs Abel, whose family were friends of Sylvia and Matthew Wilks, shed light on Hetty’s children.
Credit goes to Carol Bundy, Alyson Greenfield, Alex Karp, and Susan Sawyers for their research assistance. Catherine Talese did great scouting for the photographs.
I am grateful to Lynn Nesbit for her encouragement in shepherding this project through. My appreciation for the work of all the staff at Doubleday. Ronit Feldman was incredibly patient with my endless questions and technology fears. Daniel Meyer was always ready to help. Nan Talese is an author’s dream.
Notes
CHAPTER 1: THE SPIRIT WITHIN
1 New Bedford, Massachusetts: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Melville drew on his time in New Bedford to describe the narrator’s experience as he waits for the Pequod to sail (chapters 1–7).
2 Along the bustling waterfront: For descriptions of the whaling industry in New Bedford, see Samuel Eliot Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860 (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1923); Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001).
3 Everyone in New Bedford: For descriptions of the town and its inhabitants, see Daniel Ricketson, The History of New Bedford, Bristol County (New Bedford: published by the author, 1858); William Allen Wall, New Bedford Fifty Years Ago (New York: Charles Jabert, 1858); New Bedford Preservation Society archives; Charles T. Congdon, Reminiscences of a Journalist (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1880).
4 Howland and Robinson families: Llewyn Howland offered insights into Hetty Green, her family, and the Quakers of New Bedford in a telephone interview with the author in 2009.
5 Almost everyone he dealt with: For an excellent account of New Bedford and its Quaker community, see Everett S. Allen, Children of the Light: The Rise and Fall of New Bedford Whaling and the Death of the Arctic Fleet (Hyannis, MA: Parnassus Imprints, 1973). The Old Sturbridge Village website describes the atmosphere at a Friends meeting, http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_list.php?A=LA&T=P.
CHAPTER 2: A POLISHED REFLECTION
1 As Hetty grew up: The following books offer many anecdotes about Sylvia Ann Howland and Hetty Robinson as well as sketches of the Howland and Robinson families: William M. Emery and William W. Crapo, The Howland Heirs (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007); Robinson Genealogical Society, The Robinsons and Their Kin Folk (New York: Robinson Family Historical and Genealogical Association, 1902).
Testimony from the Howland Will trial, as well as the following books, includes detailed descriptions of Hetty’s childhood. See Hetty H. Robinson, in Equity, vs. Thomas Mandell et al., Circuit Court of the United States: Massachusetts District (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1867). Boyden Sparkes and Samuel Taylor Moore conducted numerous interviews for their book Hetty Green: A Woman Who Loved Money (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 1930), as did Arthur Lewis for The Day They Shook the Plum Tree (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963), but neither book cites sources. Charles Slack provides more updated information on her life in Hetty (New York: HarperCollins, 2004).
2 Quakers viewed anger: For explanations of the Quaker attitude and descriptions of New Englanders’ emotions, see Hugh Barbour and Jerry Williams Frost, The Quakers (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988); Nicole Eustace, Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power and the Coming of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008); Thomas Low Nichols, Forty Years of American Life, 1821–1861 (London: Longsman, Green, 1874).
3 “Hetty, daughter”: Hetty Green: A Woman Who Loved Money (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 1930).
4 Young Hetty’s rage exploded: Charles Slack, Hetty (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 15.
5 Round Hills: Barbara Bedell has a wonderful description of Round Hills in her book Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green (self-published, 2003).
6 The one who gained: For good descriptions of Edward Mott Robinson, see John T. Flynn, Men of Wealth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1941), chapter 6; New Bedford and Fairhaven Directory, 1918 (Boston: W. A. Greenough, 1909).
7 Anna Cabot Lowell: For a description of life at Anna Cabot Lowell’s school, see Elizabeth Rogers Mason Cabot, More Than Common Powers of Perception: The Diary of Elizabeth Rogers Mason Cabot, ed. P. A. M. Taylor (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991).
8 their classmate who had gone home: Carol Bundy, The Nature of Sacrifice (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005), chapter 3.
9 her reply to an invitation: Hetty Green’s Manuscript Book included letters pertaining to her social life. Quotes from the letters are courtesy of its current owner, David M. Beach.
10 “A woman, old or young”: Mrs. Burton Harrison, The Well-Bred Girl in Society (Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing Company, 1905).
CHAPTER 3: A CITY OF RICHES
1 Walt Whitman’s beloved city: Whitman was born on Long Island and educated in Brooklyn. He wrote for several local newspapers and worked for two years as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.
2 The city founders: For descriptions of New York in the mid-nineteenth century, see Isabella Bird, The Englishwoman in America (1856; repr., Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004); Fredrika Bremer, The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America (New York: Harper, 1853); and America of the Fifties: Letters of Fredrika Bremer (New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1924).
3 social rules: On social rules, New York society, and young women, see Maureen E. Montgomery, “The Female World of Ritual and Etiquette,” Displaying Women (New York: Routledge, 1998). For more information on social rules, see Mabe
l Osgood Wright, My New York (Norwood, MA: Berwick & Smith, 1926); Mrs. Burton Harrison, The Well-Bred Girl in Society (Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing, 1898); Charles Astor Bristed, The Upper Ten Thousand: Sketches of American Society (London: J. W. Parker and Sons, 1852).
4 at the homes of friends: The description of the furnishings and daily routines is based on the Merchant House Museum, New York City.
5 Hostesses sent an endless stream: For an incomparable view of life among the upper crust of New York from 1820 to 1875, see Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong, 1835–1875 (New York: Macmillan, 1952). The diarist’s notes cover everything from his role as a trustee of both Columbia University and the Philharmonic Orchestra to his work for the Sanitation Commission during the Civil War, to his disdain for some of his rich clients.
Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace provide myriad details about New York City in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), parts 4 and 5.
6 her husband’s cousin Caroline: Eric Homberger, Mrs. Astor’s New York: Money and Power in a Gilded Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), chapter 6; various New York Times articles from 1894 to 1914.
CHAPTER 4: AMERICA BOOMING
1 A fortunate few took trains: For excellent information on the railroads, see John F. Stover, American Railroads (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997); Albro Martin, Railroads Triumphant (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Robert Selph Henry, This Fascinating Railroad Business (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1942); Jack Beatty, Age of Betrayal (New York: Knopf, 2007); Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan (New York: Grove Press, 1990).
2 Henry David Thoreau’s Lyceum lecture: Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (New York: Heritage Club, 1939).
CHAPTER 5: IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE
1 And then the bubble burst: For descriptions of the financial crisis, see James L. Huston, The Panic of 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1987); Robert Morris, The Banks of New York, Their Dealers, the Clearinghouse, and the Panic of 1857 (New York: D. Appleton, 1859); Robert Sobel, Panic on Wall Street (Frederick, MD: Beard Books, 1999); Chernow, House of Morgan; Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: Harper Perennial, 2000).
2 “the most violent”: Robert Morris and James Sloane Gibbons, The Banks of New York (New York: D. Appleton, 1859).
3 “all the bubble, blunders and dishonesties”: Quoted in Sobel, Panic on Wall Street.
4 the South’s slaves: New York Times, August 26, 2001.
5 organizing a ball: Descriptions of the Prince of Wales Ball taken from Lloyd Morris, Incredible New York (Syracuse University Press, 1996); Edward N. Tailer, diaries, October 6–7, 1858 (New-York Historical Society); Helen Lansing Grinnell diary, 1861 (New York Public Library); Maunsell B. Field, Memories of Many Men & of Some Women (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874); Kate Simon, Fifth Avenue: A Very Social History (San Diego: Harcourt, 1979).
CHAPTER 6: A WILLFUL WAR
1 But it was Lincoln’s attitude: In reference to New York’s connection to the Civil War, see Wallace and Burrows, Gotham; Thomas Kessner, Capital City (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
2 plot to derail his train: Harper’s New Monthly, June 1868.
3 he had become a partner: New York Times, July 1, 1860.
4 Sylvia had given her niece: Testimony from the Howland Will trial.
5 “Americans speak of a man”: Nichols, Forty Years of American Life. In Capital City, Kessner quotes two other observers of New York: Anthony Trollope remarked, “Every man worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to night.” The essayist James McCabe said, “Here, as in no other place in the country, men struggle for wealth. They toil, they suffer privations, they plan and scheme and execute with persistence that often wins the success they covet.… Elsewhere poverty was a misfortune; in New York, poverty was an enemy to be defeated.”
6 “he dried snow in his oven”: Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
7 pledged $500 for Lincoln’s reelection: Coleman’s story about Robinson was reported in Harper’s Magazine.
CHAPTER 7: A WILL TO WIN
1 “He was the coolest man I ever saw”: George Francis Train, My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands (New York: Appleton, 1902).
2 “rather a pleasant place”: E. H. Green to H. A. Wise, New-York Historical Society.
3 Edward Mott Robinson died rich: Description of Edward Mott Robinson’s last will and testament, New York Times, October 19, 1865.
4 Standing alone in the parlor: C. W. de Lyon Nichols told the story of Hetty’s return to New Bedford for Sylvia Ann’s funeral in “Hetty Green: A Character Study,” Business America, May 1913.
5 she was afraid to be alone: Leigh Mitchell Hodges, “The Richest Woman in America: Mrs. Hetty Green as She Is Seen in Her Home and in the Business World,” Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1900.
6 a landmark case: Hetty H. Robinson, in Equity, vs. Thomas Mandell et al. Circuit Court of the United States: Massachusetts District (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, 1867). The transcript of the entire Howland will trial is available online at Google Books.
7 “We’ve put a lot of money”: Warren Buffet, annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, as reported in the New York Times, February 27, 2010.
8 Dressed in a Victorian gown: Description of Hetty and Edward’s wedding photograph, Collier’s magazine, February 19, 1946.
CHAPTER 8: A NEW LIFE
1 boarded the steamship: Weekly transatlantic passenger lists, New York Times archives.
2 With the reliable Captain T. Cook: Descriptions of life on board can be found in Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships (New York: HarperCollins, 2003).
3 During the Civil War: For the impact of the railroads, see Albra Martin, Railroads Triumphant (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) and Bradley G. Lewis, Railroads and the Character of America, 1820–1887 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986). For a history of the Louisville and Nashville and the people involved in the line, see Kincaid A. Herr, The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 1850–1963 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2000), and Maury Klein, History of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2003).
4 “a magic wand”: John Roebling, American Railroad Journal Extra: The Great Central Railroad from Philadelphia to St. Louis (Philadelphia, 1847).
5 “As yet, no portion of the world”: Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (New York: Modern Library, 1931).
6 “Eureka!”: Andrew Carnegie, The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986).
7 Abigail used her pin money: “Women of Wall Street” (exhibit), Museum of American Finance, New York, June 2009.
8 Opportunists in London: In a lengthy telephone interview with the author, Professor Scott Reynolds Nelson of the College of William and Mary explained the buying and selling of greenbacks.
9 The completion of the route: Nevins and Thomas, Diary of George Templeton Strong.
10 “Pittsburg Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad”: Letters courtesy of David Beach.
11 Hetty gave birth to a daughter: Census report for England, 1871, Westminster City archives, London.
12 Victoria Woodhull, a spiritualist: See Barbara Goldsmith, Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull (New York: Knopf, 1998).
13 “Everybody seemed to be making money”: James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (New York: Harper, 1899).
14 Henry Bischoffsheim and E. H. Green: The Times of London ran articles referring to E. H. Green on September 13, 1869, December 1870, April 11, 1872, July 6, 1872, and July 10, 1872. Se
e also the New York Times, March 12, 1872.
15 Europeans held 80 percent: Mira Williams, The History of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004).
16 “The panic of 1873”: The causes and effects of the financial panic in 1873 are described in Matthew Hale Smith, Bulls and Bears of New York (Hartford: J. B. Burr, 1875); Kessner, Capital City; Sobel, Panic on Wall Street. For a portrayal of life in the city before the crisis, see James McCabe Jr., Lights and Shadows of New York Life (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970), chapter 15, “Wall Street.”
CHAPTER 9: RETURN TO AMERICA
1 “It takes a clear, cool head”: McCabe, Lights and Shadows. McCabe wrote about New York in 1872: “All over the world to be poor is a misfortune. In New York it is a crime.”
2 “If you had bought”: Harper’s New Monthly, vol. 48.
3 While government officials: Scott Nelson, historian and professor at William and Mary College, has written extensively about this period. For a description of the panic of 1873, see “The Real Great Depression,” Chronicle Review of Higher Education, October 17, 2008.
4 Rich New Yorkers: For descriptions of the atmosphere on Wall Street, see New York Times City Room blog (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/); Nevins and Thomas, Diary of George Templeton Strong. On the causes of the crisis and the relationship between railroads and the financial markets, see James Rhode, History of the United States (London: Macmillan, 1920).
5 The town thrived: For descriptions of Bellows Falls, see Lyman Simpson Hayes, History of the Town of Rockingham (Bellows Falls, VT, 1907); Anne L. Collins, Around Bellows Falls (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002); Blanche Adaline Webb, A History of the Immanuel Church of Bellows Falls (Bellows Falls, VT: Immanuel Church, 1953).
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