Hetty Green nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street" (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916), was an American businesswoman, remarkable for her frugality during the Gilded Age, as well as for being the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street.
She was a very rich woman; in fact she was once the richest woman in the world, mainly because she didn’t use to spend any money on anything. And I do mean anything. Green was mainly interested in business because it was considered as her family business; there are many tales (of various degrees of accuracy) about her stinginess. She never turned on the heat nor used hot water. She wore an old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out. She did not wash her hands and rode an old carriage. She ate mostly pies that cost fifteen cents. One tale claims that she spent a night looking for a lost stamp worth two cents. Hettie’s son Ned broke his leg and had to have it amputated because Hettie delayed treatment while insisting on finding free medical care. The question arises how cheap a person can get when he/she has $7.5 million ($107 million in 2010 adjusted for inflation).
