She had five siblings. For a hundred years, these photos have depicted Sarah Rector, the Richest Black Girl in America. Rector was already a millionaire by the time she had turned 18. At that point, she left Tuskegee and, with her entire family, moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Queen. Rector died at the age of 65 on July 22, 1967. The truth was that her parents were given money monthly to take care of her, and a new five-room home was being built on land purchased. That same year, Rector enrolled in the childrens house, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. DuBois. Nicks herself had an affair with Mick Fleetwood in early 1978 while he was married to Jenny Boyd. Sarah Rector became an extremely famous personality all over the country and some places in the world. Thats not going to happen.. While Oprahs massive fortune wasnt built on acting, alone, she deserves to make the list. While her fortune had diminished over time, at her death, she still held considerable investments. Rector and her siblings went to school in Taft, an all-black town closer than Twine, they lived in a modern five-room cottage, and they owned an automobile. The family resided in this home until shortly after the Stock Market Crash where it was then purchased by the Adkins Funeral Home. By the time she turned 18, Rector was worth an estimated $1 million, or about $11 million today. About Of course, people never stopped trying to take advantage of Rectors fortune. She had been born into poverty as a member of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma in 1902, and received, as did every member of the Nation, a plot of undesirable land in the territory when it was made a state in 1907. Headlines such as Girls $112,000 a Year, Negro Girl Will Pay Largest Tax, and Negro Girl Rich From Oil- Has Income of $475 Daily More Soon sensationalized the story of a small girl and her familys reality. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Sarah Rector, the daughter of Creek Indian freedmen, rose from humble beginnings in a wind-swept two-room cabin near the tiny town of Twine in Indian Territory to become the richest Black girl in America when she was 11 years old. EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie. Manuel and Joe arrived in Mexico on Joes dollar but all the money evaporated while trying to target this land in Tampico. Diane Euston writes a regular history column regarding the Kansas City area on her blog The New Santa Fe Trailer. [12] Thus, as soon as Rector began to receive this windfall, there was pressure to change Rector's guardianship from her parents to a local white resident named T.J. (or J.T.) She would start receiving gifts, requests from loans, and even marriage proposals, some of them by german men, according to the tabloid press. Joe ended up quite satisfied when he was able to lease Sarahs land to an oil company where he received a bonus of $160. In turn, Joe was able to talk his wife (allegedly) into paying his $8,000 bond plus $2,000 in expenses to go to Tampico, Mexico and get his half. Contact In 1902, young Sarah Rector was born into this world, the second eldest of Joe and Rose Rectors nine children. Upon graduation, she attended the Institute. Subscribe to Newsletter Back then, it was known as Twine, Indian Territory, since Oklahoma had not yet been incorporated as a state. By the early 20th century, the Creek Freedmen, as they were known, had settled in all-Black towns dotting Indian Territory,which in 1907 became the state of Oklahoma. The land became part of the famous Cushing-Drumright Oil Field and it propelled Rector into both spotlight and scandal. Connecting Oklahoma's Electric Cooperative Communities, Mailing Address: . Economic Equity & Racial Justice Townhall Series, Elevate Black Podcast sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, 100 Founders of Change by American Express, Chasing Success Podcast by JP Morgan Chase, Black Business Month Sponsored by Nationwide, 2022 Registry Of Corporate Directors Listing, 2021 BE Registry Of Corporate Directors Listing. [3] Rector and her family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, and settled in a large stone American foursquare home located at 2000 East 12th Street that still stands today. [4] In 1934, she married restaurant owner William Crawford. Wikimedia CommonsThrough sheer chance Sarah Rector became one of the richest children in America. 1902) and Joe, Jr. (b. This version has been corrected. Lands given to former slaves were typically not fit for farming. In fact, both women appeared to have a bit of a lead foot. Her guardian, T.J. Porter, was a family friend, and although rumors spread that he was mismanaging Sarahs money, an NAACP investigation proved the claims false. It was an article in a respectable black newspaper called the Chicago Defender that turned their worlds upside down. The parcel allotted to Sarah Rector was located in Glenpool, 60 miles (97km) from where she and her family lived. To raise enough money to pay the $30 annual tax bill, Sarahs father, Joseph Rector, leased her allotment to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburg in 1911. Along with her businesses, she owned 2,000 acres of river bottomland and was worth over $1 million. Cover photo: These photos are commonly used when telling the story of Sarah Rector, however her descendants claim these are not her. Unfortunately, Rector lost a majority of her wealth during The Great Depression and moved out of her mansion on 12th Street to 2440 Brooklyn Avenue. When Rector died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, her wealth was diminished, but she still had some working oil wells and Muscogee Judge Leahy wrote back and confirmed that Porter received less than two percent of Sarahs total income, that the Rectors lived in a new, fully-furnished five-room cottage, and that Sarah and her sister were set to attend a boarding school run by Booker T. Washington. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 May 25, 1919) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Later, she sounded frustrated. Due to her newfound wealth, publications across America wrote of marriage proposals, especially those that came from four white men from Germany. Jeff Bezos is the founder of both Amazon, the worlds largest retailer, and Blue Origin. Historically so. Jerome Kerviel is the poorest person on the planet. Its too dangerous, Brown recalled. Sarah married her first husband, Kenneth Campbell, in 1920. Sarahs paternal grandparents were likely born in slavery inside of the Creek tribe in eastern Alabama. He focused on real estate development and his car dealership at 18th and Vine. By the time Sarah was 18, she was worth well over one million dollars. She felt betrayed by her bandmate. For the first time, Brown heard the word: oil. Meanwhile, Chinas state-run media portrays China as acting as a good faith peacemaker. Kerford Funeral Home. ABOUT Web5 Advantages Of In-Home Therapy And Rehabilitation Best Tyre Brands for Your Car NFL COVID PROTOCOLS: OUTBREAK POSTPONES STEELERS-TITANS Whats the If theres a lesson for others in her legacy, its in the importance of financial literacy, she said. She divorced Campbell and married restaurant owner William Crawford, who she remained with until she died. I purchased the book of The Richest Colored Girl. Inside, it says it was Rector at 12, while the 1915 caption, which does not include a photo credit, says she was 10. Beckys land was in Okfuskee County, and Sarah and Joe, Jr. ended up with parcels 50 miles northwest of Taft. Oh my goodness! Jones struck a gusher on Sarahs land that produced 2,500 barrels a day, which gave Sarah a whopping daily income of $300. about $11 million When his people were forced west of the Mississippi by the U.S. government, the chief took his enslaved workers with him. But instead of hearing that Porter was taking advantage of Sarah in the manner described, Du Bois was reassured. Following the Civil War, Rectors parents, who were formerly enslaved by Creek Tribe members, were entitled to land allotments under the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887. This home-place was a stately stone house. Historically, racism has Its this legacy that Brown saw herself paying tribute to about 12 years ago when she began with the help of her sisters and partner, Karen Riffle, to document Sarah Rectors life. Sarah and Kenneth had three sons, but in 1930 the marriage ended in divorce. In March, 1912, oil driller B.B. Besides the white guardianship, given the amount of her wealth, in 1913 the Oklahoma Legislature decided to declare her as a white person in an attempt to keep her business in the territory. The White-owned newspapers across the country heralded young Sarah as the worlds richest Negro girl and gushed about her supposed fairy-tale life, all the while suggesting she was unworthy of it. This ended up not being true entirely but Sarah and her siblings were soon sent to school in Taft. The judge also approved money for Rector to attend the childrens school at Tuskegee Institute. Many Freedmen eked out a living raising corn, cotton and other common crops. Moreover, Sarahs parents, Joseph and Rose, were also forced to pay a land tax of $30 per year on their daughters property. Connecting oklahoma's electric cooperative communities. Since 1970, BLACK ENTERPRISE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. The Wichita BeaconNewspaper articles about Sarah Rector spread throughout America and were filled with the casual racism of the era. The facts, including that Rectors themselves had selected Porter, a family friend, went unacknowledged. Deborah Brown grew up calling her Aunt Sister, and she remembers her storied life through the haze of childhood in segregated Kansas City, Mo., more than a half a century ago. Three sisters, now in their 60s and 70s, sat down with 41 Action News Anchor Kevin Holmes to talk In 1914, an African American journal, The Chicago Defender, began to take an interest in Rector, just as rumors began to fly that she was a white immigrant who was being kept in poverty. At this time, the government was doling out the last of the Indian allotments before Oklahoma was admitted as a state. Upon graduation, she attended the Institute. Sarah Rector was not immune from the Great Depression, however, which cost her most of her fortune and Sarah Rectors net worth at the time of her death is a matter of debate and speculation. That same year, Sarah was making over $300 a day, which has been estimated to be around $8,000 today. His petition was denied because of certain restrictions placed on the land, so he was required to continue paying the taxes. TimesMojo is a social question-and-answer website where you can get all the answers to your questions. One of his slaves was Mollie, Sarah Rectors great-grandmother. HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE, Age AintWhat?! SistersInc. There, the Rectors eventually moved into a home that was a far cry from that weather-whipped two-room cabin in which Sarah began life. Rectors notoriety ballooned just as quickly as her wealth. With an estimated net worth of $177 billion, he is the richest person in the world. Naturally, an 11-year-old black girl making that amount of money a day became news all over the country, and tabloids would write all sorts of things about her. Wanting to change her life, she left Tuskegee where she had been studying and moved with her family to Kansas City in Missouri. In 1913, a speculator produced a gusher on Sarahs land. Eventually, Sarah married William Crawford, a restaurateur whom she helped to open a second restaurant in Tulsa. When the public learned how much Rector was earning, her guardianship was transferred from her parents to a white man named T.J. Porter. Booker T. Washington even reportedly visited their home. Aboriginal American member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, "Remembering Sarah Rector, Creek Freedwoman", "The African-Native American Genealogy Blog", "Sarah Rector The Richest Black Girl In The World", "The Unlikely Baroness | This Land Press - Made by You and Me", "United Inner City Services Hope Murals Bring Attention to the Rector House", "Black History Month From the Archives Sarah Rector: The Richest Colored Girl in the World", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarah_Rector&oldid=1142217379, American businesspeople in the oil industry, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 04:11. Two years later, wildcatter B.B. No one, including historians, is clear on what happened to Aunt Sisters money. There are few records of abuses and attempted abuses suffered by Sarah and other child landowners, but her wealth and property rights made her a target for exploitation. When Sarahs popularity grew, her parents were forced to give up their guardianship status to a white man named T.J. Porter. Women of Power Summit Her and her familys net worth was estimated at 73.6 billion U.S. dollars. When she died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, she only Du Bois to become concerned about her welfare. How the author stumbled on Sarahs story is included in this spellbinding presentation of an early America and real-life mysteries. She was born in an almost all-black town called Taft in Oklahoma, a land that was considered at the time an Indian Territory. Who is the youngest richest woman in the world? Concerned with her wellbeing and her white financial guardian, early NAACP leaders fought to protect her and her fortune. The couple had three sons before divorcing in 1930. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 near the all-black town of Taft, located in the eastern portion of Oklahoma,[3] in what was then Indian Territory. Her siblings all took on jobs- her mother even for a time went back to working as a maid. Freedmen like Sarahs relatives born into slavery were eligible for land allotments according to a treaty reached in 1866. She bought a big house, that became known as the Rector Mansion, and all in all, things were looking great for the Rector family. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Quickly, this oil gusher produced 2,500 barrels of oil per day. In 1913, an independent driller, B.B. Before her wealth and fame, At that time, it was required by law that all Native Americans and Black citizens from Indian Territories with relatively significant property and wealth had to be assigned a well-respected white guardian to be able to keep making business. With all the attention surrounding her wealth, eventually Sarah Rector attracted the attention of another type of man: one who did not see black or white so much as green. That equates to $7,000 $8,000 today. At $3.50 an acre, she wasnt shouting Im rich! just yet. To make it more noticeable for her, they promised this move would elevate her social status, and was going to be able to ride on first-class cars on trains as if it would mend a lifetime of discrimination. Mansa Musa I: The Richest Man In History Was An African King, Not Jeff Bezos. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 near the all-black town of Taft, located in the eastern portion of Oklahoma, in what was then Indian Territory. Who was this girl, and how did she become one of the richest people in the early-20th-century US? Shed yet to become a millionaire, crossing that threshold at about 18, with oil earnings that would be worth $14 million today. All rights reserved 2022 Collective Culture. In 1913, an oil driller discovered a gusher that produced a reported 2,500 barrels per day. Time, at her death, she deserves to make the list Girl in America as the first female millionaire. 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what happened to sara recor