At the age of two, Hetty was sent to live with her grandfather, Gideon Howland, and her Aunt Sylvia. Hetty would read the stock quotations and commerce reports for her grandfather and picked up some of his business methods. At the age of 10, Hetty entered Eliza Wing's boarding school in Sandwich. Hetty's father became the head of the Isaac Howland whaling firm upon Gideon's death, and Hetty began to emulate her father's business practices. Hetty learned to read ledgers and trade commodities. At the age of 15, Hetty enrolled for two summer sessions at the Friends Academy. Hetty also attended Anna Cabot Lowell's finishing school, and appeared as a debutante in 1854, before moving to New York to live with a cousin of her mother's, Henry Grinnell. Yet, it was not long before Hetty returned to New Bedford, alternating between her father's house and her aunt's house. There, as Janet Wallach states, "...by pursuing her father's interests she not only won his praise, she shared his pleasure in making money."