The World's Most Unusual Millionaire

   Hetty Robinson was born in 1834.  When her parents died, they left her $10 million.  She was very good at business and made more money.  Soon Hetty became the richest woman in the United States, but she was very stingy.

    Hetty always wore the same black dress.  The color of the dress changed to green and then to brown as the years passed by.  Her undergarments were old newspapers she got from trash baskets.  Her home was a run- down apartment with no heat in New Jersey.  All she ate was onions, eggs, and cold oatmeal.  She was too stingy to heat her food.

    She was married for a short time to a millionaire, Edward Green, and had a son.  She was even stingy with her own child.  For example, when her son hurt his knee in an accident, Hetty did not call a doctor.  She dressed her son in old clothes and took him to a free clinic.  The doctors recognized her and asked for money.  Hetty refused and took her son home.  The boy did not get medical treatment, and a few years later his leg was amputated.  When Hetty Green died in 1916, she left more than $100 million!