Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America

88 Pages·2014·9.253 MB·English

by  Tonya Bolden

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brings to light the intriguing mystery of
Sarah Rector, who was born in 1902 in
Indian Territory and later was famously
hailed by the Chicago Defender as “the
wealthiest colored girl in the world."
Author Tonya Bolden sets Rector’s rags-to-
riches tale against the backdrop of Ameri¬
can history, including the creation of Indian
Territory; the making of Oklahoma, with
its black towns and boomtowns; and the
wild behavior of many greedy and corrupt
grown-ups.
At the age of eleven, Sarah was a very
rich young girl. Even so, she was powerless
... helpless in the whirlwind of drama—
and danger—that swirled around her.
Then one day word came that she had
disappeared.
This is her story, and the story of other
children like her, filled with ups and
downs, bizarre goings-on, and a heap of
crimes.
Out of a trove of primary documents,
including court and census records, as
welT as interviews with family members,
bol4^ ' painstakingly pieces together the
events oi ^Nrah’s life.
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REINFORCED BINDING
New City Library
220 N Main St
New City, NY 10956
845-634-4997
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FOR
CK IN AMERICA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bolden, Tonya.
Searching for Sarah Rector / Tonya Bolden,
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4197-0846-6
1. Rector, Sarah, 1902— —Juvenile literature. 2. African American women—Oklahoma—Creek County—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. African Americans—
Oklahoma—Creek County—Biography—Juvenile literature. 4. Women millionaires—Oklahoma—Creek County—Biography—Juvenile literature.
5. Millionaires—Oklahoma—Creek County—Biography—Juvenile literature. 6. Creek Indians—Oklahoma—Creek County—Biography—Juvenile literature.
7. Petroleum industry and trade—Oklahoma—History—20th century—Juvenile literature. 8. Creek County (Okla.)—Biography. I. Title.
F702.C85B65 2014
976.6’84053092-dc23
[B]
2012039254
Text copyright © 2014 Tonya Bolden
Book design by Maria T. Middleton
Published in 2014 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written
permission from the publisher.
Printed and bound in China
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- « I » - « 54 »*
PROLOGUE GLOSSARY
2 s^'^ •;« 58 *
ONE 160 Acres NOTES
« 15
« 66
TWO Three and a Half Dollars an Acre SELECTED SOURCES
’i * 23 »> « 68
THREE Twelve and a Half Percent ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
« 33 »-* « 71 »>
-r r
FOUR One Million Dollars ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
46 * * 72 » >
EPILOGUE INDEX
« 51 » r
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Kiss-
MmB
PROLOGUE
“DEAR SIR: AFTER READINGr YOUR ACCOUNT OF TPIE LITTLE GIRL,
Sarah Rector, I am writing to state that I heartily approve that part of your statement which says
she ‘cannot be hid.’” That’s how John A. Melby of Gary, Indiana, began his letter to R. S. Abbott,
publisher of the Chicago Defender, a weekly paper. Melby’s letter was dated March 15,1914.
The day before, the Defender had run a front-page story on twelve-year-old Sarah Rector, rais¬
ing the frightening possibility of a kidnapping. It punctuated the piece at points with the question
‘‘Where is Sarah Rector?”
Melby urged Abbott to do whatever it took to solve the mystery—even hire a detective ‘‘to get
at the facts.”
Why were Melby and the Defender so worked up over Sarah Rector? Would they have spent the
same amount of ink on any other girl—or boy—gone missing?
We’d like to think so, but we know that Sarah wasn’t just any girl. She was being ballyhooed
as the richest black girl in America—some said in the world. The scuttlebutt was that Sarah had
an income of $15,000 a month—the equivalent of more than $300,000 today.
Just as amazing; How Sarah Rector came into her riches.
It’s a story full of ups, downs, and turnarounds, followed by crazy goings-on amid a heap of
crimes. But the telling can’t begin without a bit of backing up to some facets of American history
that are often overlooked.
2
ONE
r a
SARAH RECTOR WAS BORN ON MARCH 3, 1902. HER HOME WAS A WEATHER-
whipped two-room cabin near the tiny town of Twine, LT.
I.T. stood for Indian Territory. There, Sarah and her family were known as “Creek freedmen”—that
is, black members of a nation of Indians commonly called Creeks.
Mvskoke (mus-KOH-gee) is what these Indians called themselves—Muscogee (and Muskogee) in
English. This union of several tribes long included the Euchee, the Tuskegee, and the tribe whose name
the union bore, the Muscogee.
As for the men and women, girls and boys, bearing the blood of African tribes. Creeks called them
Estelvste (es-stih-LUS-tee)—“the black people.”
\