Sarah Rector was born in Oklahoma in the all black town of Taft in 1902. She is a native member of the Muskogee Creek nation. The Muskogee have lived in the Oklahoma area for hundreds, if not, thousands of years. Taft was part of a larger expanse of Indian territory that became the subject of the Treaty of 1866. The Treaty sought to, amongst other things, redistribute land to native Muskogee children. Each child received 160 acres in the settlement. Sarah, being one of those children, received hers when she was a minor child and her estate was handled by her parents. Sarah’s father became distressed as he was required to pay 30$ in taxes on the land annually and he had difficulty raising the funds. To satisfy the tax he leased portions of Sarah’s land to The Standard Oil company. Turns out the land was rich in oil and Standard built wells on the lease to harvest the liquid gold. It was estimated that the fields produced over 2500 barrels of oil per day and the Rector family began to receive royalties upward of 300$ per day. Needless to say this changed the fortunes and immediate lifestyle of the Rector family. Standard Oil hit the gusher in 1913 and it was estimated that the Rectors were paid about 12,000$ that year. Despite just being 12 years old Sarah’s celebrity got ahead of her and stories of her new found wealth produced far flung request for loans and even marriage proposals.
Booker T Washington became involved with Sarah as stories began to be published saying the family was either being cheated out of or were mismanaging the wealth. He enrolled Sarah in the Tuskegee Institute for children and she stayed there until age 18. She then immediately enrolled in the University and graduated in the 1920’s. She moved, upon graduation, to Missouri and lived well off of her wealth. She purchased a large and stately home in Kansas City and married and had 3 children. Her husband pursued car sales and opened up dealerships in Kansas City as well Chicago.