Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-15
NEGRO BOY DRAWS
$3.50 DAILY INCOME
Oklahoma Youth of Ten Has
Fortune Thrust Upon Him
in Oil Wells.

know that he is one of the richest
boys in the State, and if he did the
fact would carry no significance to
his brain. Little Dan Tucker often
sings for his supper, but he doesn't
have to--he doesn't have to do any
thing for his subsistence and prob
ably never will The month of
March saw deposited to his credit
$4,000 and every day he makes not
less than $3.50.
Dan Tucker is the son of James
and Eliza beth Tucker children of
slaves of the Greek Indians freed by
the Civil War. BY virtue of a treaty
made between the United States and
the Creek Indians at Fort Smith,
Ark, in 1866 slaves formerly belong
ing to the Greeks and their descend
ants were given an equal share with
their former owners in the govern
ment allotment of the old Creek
lands in the Indian territory. And
that is how Dan Tucker now owns
100 acres of land lying fifteen miles
east of Cushing, Okla. in the heart
of the newly developed Gushing oil
fields. The land was allotted to him
in a supplementary division made by
the government in 1905, and Dan had
been enrolled as an eligible by his
father
Land Worthless for Time.
For years the land was reputedly
no aceount-far from a stream, no
ten acres of it slantng the same way,
and the surface rocky and hilly, re-
sisting cultivation. Two years ago,
long after Dams parents had given
up hope of return from the land, the
Prairie Oil and Gas Company ar
40
Frank Wheeler had Just made his
well-knoWn strike on land almost adj
jacent, and Dams land looked very
promising to the oil experts. Well, of
course, they struck oil lots OF it.
They couldn't miss it. Oil is rushing
out of that portion of Creek county
like water from lawn sprinkler.
The terms of Dams lease are the
ones usually made between the
owners and the development COM
panies. Dan gets one-eighth of the
gross proceeds from his oil wells and
the Prairie Oil and Gas Company does
all the work and stands all the eX-
pense of operation. Dams fathers,
Jim Tucker. common negro farmer.
near Porter, Okla, had years ago
accumulated his eighty-acre farm
and a lot of debts. He knew how to
plant corn and shucb the ears-if any
corn grew from the seed. but he knew
very little about being a guardian.
When young Dams income rose to
more than 5000 a day from the wells
on the Gushing farm it became evil
dent that guardianing was out of Jim
fuckers line. Dams oil earnings for
the month of February amounted to
more than 81, 900, and such an amount
was away over his fathers head, SO
to speak.
How the Fortune Grows.
Consequently on March Jesse
Watts, an attorney of Wagner,
Okla, was appointed Dams guardian,
and during the following thirty days
there was deposited to the credit of
the guardian $4,000 In the last
month there has been a gradual de-
crease in the price of oil. until it
stands today at seVenty-five cents a
barrel. The daily output of the wells
has correspondence decreased, and
last week Dams wells we're putting
out about 1000 barrels a day, piling
up Dams share daily at something
over $3.50
The extent of Dams fortune is
variable quantity, and cannot be es-
timated fairly because of the many
influences that affect it, The Waver-
ing price of crude oil, the uncertain
time that the wells will continue their
output, may eventually bring Dams
income down to less than $50 a day.
ON the other hand, there is every
reason to believe that an abundance
of oil is available on other portions
of Dams allotment, and that better
facilities will soon be made for con-
veying the product to the refineries.
Pipe lines more railroads and more
oil wells can't mean anything but
more money for Dan for years to
come.
And little Dan, chasing chickens
and feeding two or three pigs on old
Jim's farm, doesn't know that the
world extends any further than to
Muskogee, eighteen miles away. To
tell him that he made $4,000 last
month means hardly as much to him
as TO tell him he has another pig
to feed
Boy Is Ignorant of Wealth.
In money matters, Dams mind
| graSpS the significance of amounts up
| to about % cents, but beyond that the
| thought of money is unnecessary and
| uncalled for, according to Dams
| theory. His father is paid $50
month to provide for him, and send
! him to school. Dan resents both, and
insists that all the provision he needs
| is some one to ring the dinner bell.
! Five months of school a year are a
| good many more than Dan sees any
use for, and he is inclined to think
| that if education and culture are
| necessary for one to be rich grace
fully he will be content to roam about
in old "Jim's pasture the rest of his
| days. and let some one else take the
money who will be willing to prepare
| himself for it,
Another negro child from Musko-
gee, whose experience is unparalleled
except by Aladdin and Cinderella, is
| little Sarah Rector, eleven years old
an orphan, crude black and unedu
| Gated, yet worth more than 100000.
| Sarah and her little brother of eight
years, Mamie, came into quarter
section of worthless farm land, but
| fine oil land in the same manner
| that Dan Tucker received his.
| Sarahs parents both died several
years ago. Her mother died of that
dread white plague" which attacks
negroes more than 1t does whites, and
her fathers term in the Oklahoma
penitentiary was interrupted by his
| death,
And Sarah plodded ahead, begging
and borrowing from the neighbors,
and was never heard or thought of
until the oil promoters hunted up the
owner of some land northeast of
Cushing. b. b. Jones, a jealous oil
promoter with little money, located
her finally and executed an oil lease
upon her share of the quarter section
The first well they brought in was
the biggest in the history of the
Cushing fields The first twenty days
it was operated it paid to Sarah heI
eighth share of $50, 900.
~o