Sweet Silly Spunky Sadie
Have you ever heard of the "Richest Black Girl" in the World? Who was she? Why do we barely know her name? Sarah Rector by the age of 10 became the richest black child in America because of of Oil drilled on her allotted Creek Nation Property near Cushing, Oklahoma.
Sarah received a land grant from the Creek Nation as part of reparations. Soon after, oil was discovered on her property. By 1912, the revenue from this oil was $371,000 per year (roughly $6.5 million today). There were various attempts to steal her land and fortune, but Sarah resisted. Sarah went on to attend Tuskegee University and eventually settled in Kansas City, Missouri where her mansion still stands.
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In The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, dated 10 October 1912, Thursday, page 3, we find these headlines: "Oklahoma Negro Girl Gets Just $475 A Day."
Washington, Oct. 8 (1912) -- "A 10 year old Oklahoma negress, Sarah Rector, is the richest colored person int he world, or soon will be, and probably have to pay more income tax than any citizen of Oklahoma," said E. M. Kerr, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, at the Ebbitt.
It seems Sarah was the owner of a quarter section of land, which the Government gave her, in a 1912 discovered oil fields near Cushing, Oklahoma, and it was reported her royalties from the oil on her land were in excess of $475 a day, or $171,000 a year. Sarah was becoming rich so fast that the Muskogee bank which handled her money had a special book engraved and lettered with gold leaf for her account.
The first oil well on Sarah's land was the biggest in the Cushing filed. It came with an initial flow of 2,949 barrels, and after 30 days it was still doing 2,000 barrels. Well No. 2 had just been brought in, and was doing 1,800 barrels a day. Sarah got one-eighth royalty from the oil, and with oil as $1.03 a barrel it could easily be figured that Sarah Rector bids fair to become the wealthiest member of her race in the world. Nine other wells were then, being drilled on the Rector land, and if they proved as productive as the two wells already drilled, Sarah would have a yearly income of nearly $1,000,000.
T. J. Porter, a farmer and stockman at Beland, Oklahoma, was guardian for the girl, who lived in a little cabin on the Porter place. Sarah naturally had no conception of the flood of wealth about to engulf her. The lease of the land was originally bought by the Prairie Oil and Gas Company, through the Probate Court in Muskogee county, and a bonus of $1 an acre was paid for it. B. B. Jones, of Bristol, Oklahoma, afterward bought the lease from he Prairie Company.
Little Sarah Rector Being Trained At Tuskegee School
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In the Muskogee Times-Democrat, dated 17 march 1915, Wednesday, page 1, mentions "Little Sarah Rector Being Trained at Tuskegee School As Benefits Her Great Wealth."
We find Sarah was a scrawny, kinky-haired, twelve years old, negro girl with curly pigtails and pigeon toes. She looked like an ordinary negro girl you see playing in the street, but there was one advantage she had - she was rich.
Sarah was the owner of one of the biggest oil producing allotments in Creek County, in the Cushing oil field. When the money began to roll in, Sarah was taken from her squalid surroundings and sent to Tuskegee, Alabama, to be educated and dressed like a lady. In Booker T. Washington's school, she was making progress, as letters from there to negro business men stated.
When Booker T. Washington was there last summer (1914) he was taken by a number of negro business men to the home of Rector girl and looked her over. Before he came there arrangements had been made by Edward Curd her attorney, and County Judge Leahy and others, to send her to Tuskegee.
In 195 Sarah's wealth from her oil lands were producing 12,000 barrels of oil a day, which at the that time market price of 350 a barrel would make her income the pitiful sum of $525 a day or $188,000 a year.
It was during the past few months in 1915, the company that bought her oil had not been taking it all, but was placing about half of it in storage, according to Mr. Curd, so Sarah would have to be economical and retrenched. It would be necessary, according to Mr. Curd, for her to try and eke out an existence until times were better on the trifling sum of $94,000 a year.
~ Good Night! Good Luck!
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