Sarah Rector received international attention at the age of eleven when The Kansas City Star in 1913 publicized the headline, “Millions to a Negro Girl.” From that moment her life became a cauldron of misinformation, legal and financial maneuvering, and public speculation.
Sarah was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, in a two-room cabin near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Indian allotment land. Both Joseph & Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, & both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War. When Oklahoma statehood became imminent in 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks & their former slaves with a termination date of 1906. Rector’s parent, along with Sarah & her brother, Joe, Jr., & sister Rebecca all received land. Lands granted to former slaves were usually the rocky lands of poorer agricultural quality. Rector’s allotment of 160 acres was valued at $556.50.
Primarily to generate enough revenue to pay the $30 annual tax bill, in February 1911 Rector’s father leased her allotment to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1913, however, her fortunes changed when wildcat oil driller B.B. Jones produced a "gusher" that brought in 2,500 barrels a day. Sarah now received an income of $300.00 per day. Once this wealth was made known, Sarah’s guardianship was switched from her parents to a white man named T.J. Porter, an individual personally known to the Rectors. Multiple new wells were also productive, & Sarah’s allotment subsequently became part of the famed Cushing-Drumright Field in Oklahoma. In the month of October 1913 Sarah received $11,567.
Once her identity became public, Sarah received numerous requests for loans, money gifts, & even marriage proposals from four Germans even though she was 12. In 1914 The Chicago Defender published an article claiming that her estate was being mismanaged by grafters & her "ignorant" parents, & that she was uneducated, dressed in rags, & lived in an unsanitary shanty. National African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois became concerned about her welfare. None of the allegations were true. Sarah & her siblings went to school in Taft, an all-black town closer than Twine. They lived in a modern five-room cottage, & they owned an automobile. That same year, Sarah enrolled in the Children’s House, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
When Rector turned eighteen on March 3, 1920, she left Tuskegee & her entire family moved with her to Kansas City, Missouri. By this point Sarah, who now owned stocks & bonds, a boarding house & bakery & the Busy Bee Café in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as 2,000 acres of prime river bottom-land, was a millionaire.
The family moved into what would be known as the Rector Mansion. Legal wrangling over Sarah’s estate & some mismanagement continued until she was twenty. That year she married Kenneth Campbell, & the couple had three sons, Kenneth, Jr., Leonard, & Clarence. Much was publicized about her "extravagant" spending on luxuries. Her marriage to Campbell ended in 1930, & in 1934 she married William Crawford.
When she died, at age 65, her wealth was diminished. But, she still had some working oil wells & real estate holdings.
Sarah was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, in a two-room cabin near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Indian allotment land. Both Joseph & Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, & both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War. When Oklahoma statehood became imminent in 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks & their former slaves with a termination date of 1906. Rector’s parent, along with Sarah & her brother, Joe, Jr., & sister Rebecca all received land. Lands granted to former slaves were usually the rocky lands of poorer agricultural quality. Rector’s allotment of 160 acres was valued at $556.50.
Primarily to generate enough revenue to pay the $30 annual tax bill, in February 1911 Rector’s father leased her allotment to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1913, however, her fortunes changed when wildcat oil driller B.B. Jones produced a "gusher" that brought in 2,500 barrels a day. Sarah now received an income of $300.00 per day. Once this wealth was made known, Sarah’s guardianship was switched from her parents to a white man named T.J. Porter, an individual personally known to the Rectors. Multiple new wells were also productive, & Sarah’s allotment subsequently became part of the famed Cushing-Drumright Field in Oklahoma. In the month of October 1913 Sarah received $11,567.
Once her identity became public, Sarah received numerous requests for loans, money gifts, & even marriage proposals from four Germans even though she was 12. In 1914 The Chicago Defender published an article claiming that her estate was being mismanaged by grafters & her "ignorant" parents, & that she was uneducated, dressed in rags, & lived in an unsanitary shanty. National African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois became concerned about her welfare. None of the allegations were true. Sarah & her siblings went to school in Taft, an all-black town closer than Twine. They lived in a modern five-room cottage, & they owned an automobile. That same year, Sarah enrolled in the Children’s House, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
When Rector turned eighteen on March 3, 1920, she left Tuskegee & her entire family moved with her to Kansas City, Missouri. By this point Sarah, who now owned stocks & bonds, a boarding house & bakery & the Busy Bee Café in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as 2,000 acres of prime river bottom-land, was a millionaire.
The family moved into what would be known as the Rector Mansion. Legal wrangling over Sarah’s estate & some mismanagement continued until she was twenty. That year she married Kenneth Campbell, & the couple had three sons, Kenneth, Jr., Leonard, & Clarence. Much was publicized about her "extravagant" spending on luxuries. Her marriage to Campbell ended in 1930, & in 1934 she married William Crawford.
When she died, at age 65, her wealth was diminished. But, she still had some working oil wells & real estate holdings.
Sarah Rector received international attention at the age of eleven when The Kansas City Star in 1913 publicized the headline, “Millions to a Negro Girl.” From that moment her life became a cauldron of misinformation, legal and financial maneuvering, and public speculation.
Sarah was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, in a two-room cabin near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Indian allotment land. Both Joseph & Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, & both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War. When Oklahoma statehood became imminent in 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks & their former slaves with a termination date of 1906. Rector’s parent, along with Sarah & her brother, Joe, Jr., & sister Rebecca all received land. Lands granted to former slaves were usually the rocky lands of poorer agricultural quality. Rector’s allotment of 160 acres was valued at $556.50.
Primarily to generate enough revenue to pay the $30 annual tax bill, in February 1911 Rector’s father leased her allotment to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1913, however, her fortunes changed when wildcat oil driller B.B. Jones produced a "gusher" that brought in 2,500 barrels a day. Sarah now received an income of $300.00 per day. Once this wealth was made known, Sarah’s guardianship was switched from her parents to a white man named T.J. Porter, an individual personally known to the Rectors. Multiple new wells were also productive, & Sarah’s allotment subsequently became part of the famed Cushing-Drumright Field in Oklahoma. In the month of October 1913 Sarah received $11,567.
Once her identity became public, Sarah received numerous requests for loans, money gifts, & even marriage proposals from four Germans even though she was 12. In 1914 The Chicago Defender published an article claiming that her estate was being mismanaged by grafters & her "ignorant" parents, & that she was uneducated, dressed in rags, & lived in an unsanitary shanty. National African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois became concerned about her welfare. None of the allegations were true. Sarah & her siblings went to school in Taft, an all-black town closer than Twine. They lived in a modern five-room cottage, & they owned an automobile. That same year, Sarah enrolled in the Children’s House, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
When Rector turned eighteen on March 3, 1920, she left Tuskegee & her entire family moved with her to Kansas City, Missouri. By this point Sarah, who now owned stocks & bonds, a boarding house & bakery & the Busy Bee Café in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as 2,000 acres of prime river bottom-land, was a millionaire.
The family moved into what would be known as the Rector Mansion. Legal wrangling over Sarah’s estate & some mismanagement continued until she was twenty. That year she married Kenneth Campbell, & the couple had three sons, Kenneth, Jr., Leonard, & Clarence. Much was publicized about her "extravagant" spending on luxuries. Her marriage to Campbell ended in 1930, & in 1934 she married William Crawford.
When she died, at age 65, her wealth was diminished. But, she still had some working oil wells & real estate holdings.
Sarah was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, in a two-room cabin near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Indian allotment land. Both Joseph & Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, & both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War. When Oklahoma statehood became imminent in 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks & their former slaves with a termination date of 1906. Rector’s parent, along with Sarah & her brother, Joe, Jr., & sister Rebecca all received land. Lands granted to former slaves were usually the rocky lands of poorer agricultural quality. Rector’s allotment of 160 acres was valued at $556.50.
Primarily to generate enough revenue to pay the $30 annual tax bill, in February 1911 Rector’s father leased her allotment to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1913, however, her fortunes changed when wildcat oil driller B.B. Jones produced a "gusher" that brought in 2,500 barrels a day. Sarah now received an income of $300.00 per day. Once this wealth was made known, Sarah’s guardianship was switched from her parents to a white man named T.J. Porter, an individual personally known to the Rectors. Multiple new wells were also productive, & Sarah’s allotment subsequently became part of the famed Cushing-Drumright Field in Oklahoma. In the month of October 1913 Sarah received $11,567.
Once her identity became public, Sarah received numerous requests for loans, money gifts, & even marriage proposals from four Germans even though she was 12. In 1914 The Chicago Defender published an article claiming that her estate was being mismanaged by grafters & her "ignorant" parents, & that she was uneducated, dressed in rags, & lived in an unsanitary shanty. National African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois became concerned about her welfare. None of the allegations were true. Sarah & her siblings went to school in Taft, an all-black town closer than Twine. They lived in a modern five-room cottage, & they owned an automobile. That same year, Sarah enrolled in the Children’s House, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
When Rector turned eighteen on March 3, 1920, she left Tuskegee & her entire family moved with her to Kansas City, Missouri. By this point Sarah, who now owned stocks & bonds, a boarding house & bakery & the Busy Bee Café in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as 2,000 acres of prime river bottom-land, was a millionaire.
The family moved into what would be known as the Rector Mansion. Legal wrangling over Sarah’s estate & some mismanagement continued until she was twenty. That year she married Kenneth Campbell, & the couple had three sons, Kenneth, Jr., Leonard, & Clarence. Much was publicized about her "extravagant" spending on luxuries. Her marriage to Campbell ended in 1930, & in 1934 she married William Crawford.
When she died, at age 65, her wealth was diminished. But, she still had some working oil wells & real estate holdings.
Bio by: Deleon Todd
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
