Remembering Yesteryear: Sarah Rector- The youngest African American oil tycoon

Remembering Yesteryear: Sarah Rector- The youngest African American oil tycoon

Dilemma X would like to take this time to remember Sarah Rector.

Below are newspaper articles that will take you on brief journey back into history.
Should she have become the first African American billionaire? See for yourself.

___________

Sarah Rector

Age 12

Sarah Rector was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Native American allotment land. Both Joseph and Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, and both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War.

In 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks and their former enslaved people with a termination date of 1906. Rector’s parents, Sarah Rector herself, her brother, Joe, Jr., and sister Rebecca all received land.

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 struck oil. Sarah Rector became the wealthiest young African American in the nation.

Rector died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, her wealth was diminished, but she still had some working oil wells and real estate holdings. Sarah Rector was buried in Taft Cemetery, Oklahoma.

Sarah moved to Kansas City, Missouri. By this point Rector, who now owned stocks and bonds, a boarding house and bakery and the Busy Bee Café in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as 2,000 acres of prime river bottomland, was a millionaire.

The family moved into what would be known as the Rector Mansion. Rector married Kenneth Campbell, and the couple had three sons, Kenneth, Jr., Leonard, and Clarence. Her marriage to Campbell ended in 1930, and in 1934 she married William Crawford.
Source: BlackPast.org

History in the news
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1887

1906

1913 

$475 in 1913 would equal $11,372 in 2015
$1 million in 1913 would equal $23,941,111 in 2015

1913

$171,000 in 1913 would equal $4,093,930 in 2015

1913

1915

1915
$188,000 in 1915 would equal $4,411,801 in 2015

1915
$18,000 in 1915 would equal $422,406 in 2015

1916

1918
$1 million in 1918 would equal $15,696,490 in 2015

1918

1918

1918

1918
Click image to enlarge

1918

$2,625 in 1918 would equal $41,203 in 2015

1920

1920

1922

1922

1961

The Rector House today in Kansas City