Sarah Rector

 Sarah Rector was born to Joseph and Rose Rector #OnThisDay in 1902 near Twine, Oklahoma. Decades earlier, her African American ancestors had been enslaved by members of the Creek Indian Nation. This made them eligible to receive land distributed to individual Indian families as part of the 1887 Dawes Allotment Act. Sarah’s original allotment of 160 acres was only valued at $556.50.

In 1911, her father leased her land to the Devonian Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was just 11 years old when oil driller B.B. Jones found oil on her land. They eventually started producing thousands of gallons a day, and by the age of 18, she was a millionaire.

Rector later moved to Kansas City, Missouri and lived in what became known as the Rector Mansion. With her newfound wealth, she went on to acquire a boarding house, bakery, multiple stocks and bonds, and the Busy Bee Cafe in Muskogee, Oklahoma. #WomensHistoryMonth #SmithsonianWHM