April 30, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry describes how a genealogist was needed to determine the heirs of the world’s richest woman when she died. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
When the richest woman in the world, Henrietta Howland Robinson Green (1834-1916) – aka the “Witch of Wall Street,” met her maker, a wave of Howland heirs besieged the trustees claiming that ancestral ties made them legitimate legatees.
The shrewd, eccentric Yankee Quaker-raised lady died on 3 July 1916, leaving an estate estimated at several billion dollars (in today’s market).
The headlines all read something to this effect: WORLD’S RICHEST WOMAN IS DEAD.
There was a will. Hettie’s son and daughter would inherit most of the money and assets, but a portion of the monies ($1,500,000 – about $44,672,000 today) was to be distributed among the lineal descendants of the Howland heirs as specified in a trust.
When Hettie’s father, wealthy whaling and oil merchant Edward Mott Robinson (1800-1865) died, she inherited $1 million in cash and about $5 million in properties. Her father, a Quaker, was the son of Revolutionary War soldier James Robinson and Mary Attimore.
That same year Hettie’s aunt Sylvia Ann Howland (1806-1865), single with no issue, also died, leaving her $1 million from the family estate. Sylvia was the daughter of Gideon Howland Jr. (1770-1847) and his wife Mehitable Howland. Mehitable was the daughter of Isaac Howland, Gideon’s cousin, and the widow of both Otis Slocum and James Allen.
Aunt Sylvia and her sister Abby Slocum Howland Robinson (1809-1860) – Hettie’s mother – were the heiresses to the whaling fortune of their father Gideon Howland Jr. of Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Hettie took her many millions and invested the money. She lived frugally and accumulated a vast fortune.
However, the inheritance from her aunt Sylvia would be for Hettie’s lifetime only –upon her death it was to be dispersed among the living heirs of Gideon Howland Jr.
In 1867 Hettie married Vermont tea and silk trader Edward Henry Green (1821-1902), son of Henry Atkinson Green and Anna Amory Tucker.
Before the marriage Green signed a contract, or prenup, stipulating that all of Hettie’s fortune would stay in her hands.
Green was a partner in the firm Russell Sturgis & Co. with Jonathan Russell. He was later the president of the Louisville & Nashville railroad.
Despite any wealth he acquired, it was always eclipsed by that of Hettie’s estate. He was an avid sportsman and society club goer.
At one point Green lost a fortune in Wall Street speculation and Hettie separated from him. It was said he spent his remaining days as a bachelor and lived on a small pension from Hettie.
They had two children, Colonel Edward “Ned” Howland Robinson Green and Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Green. Both married but had no children.
Colonel Ned married Mabel Emmerson Harlow, a purported Chicago exotic dancer and call girl.
Harriet married Matthew Astor Wilks, son of Matthew Wilks and Eliza Astor Langdon and grandson of John Jacob Astor I, America’s first multi-millionaire.
The Howland Heirs Hunt & Hustle
William Morrell Emery, a historian, genealogist, newspaper editor, and author, was hired by the trustees to research the ancestral lines.
According to a newspaper report, Emery was busy building the Howland family tree before Hettie’s death to figure in all the heirs of the “Sylvia Ann Howland Trust” that would pass from Hettie.
This article reports:
The beneficiaries under the Howland will, several hundred in number, are scattered all over the United States and abroad, and during the past two years Mr. Emery has devoted much time to compiling s full genealogy of these descendants of Gideon Howland and ascertaining the whereabouts of all the heirs. His list is regarded as the most nearly complete of any in existence and will furnish the basis on which he will continue the task of determining the names of the heirs, their lines of descent from Gideon Howland and their relationships. Mr. Emery has done a great deal of this kind of work for various large estates and old families with signal success in the last few years.
Emery published the story and his genealogical findings in a book entitled “The Howland Heirs; Being the Story of a Family and a Fortune and the Inheritance of a Trust Established for Mrs. Hetty H. R. Green” in 1919.
Even though Emery was making an affirmative list of the rightful heirs, several claimants were springing up daily. A few were legitimate, while many just did not have the right pedigree.
Fortune seekers came from everywhere. Emery noted in his book that even a little girl living in Valparaiso, Chile, sent on her photograph, so the trustees could see if she looked like the Howlands.
Stay tuned! This is a genealogical drama with twists and turns you will not want to miss!
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Note on the header image: close-up of Henrietta Howland Robinson Green. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
