The Oilman's Daughter

Jane Wilson Sheppard was three years old in 1917 when her family moved to Oklahoma. Around seventy years later she began writing anecdotes from her life. As I read stories of her childhood I realized how much history she included--history that should be shared and preserved. She wrote about early oil fields and county fairs; Tulsas landmarks its race riot and its riverside area; Oklahomas 101 Ranch and Pawnee Bill; and her life inside a convent school.Most of her memories revolve around her Tulsa neighborhood near the Arkansas River and her interesting family as one neighbor euphemistically described it. She and her two younger nephews Billy and Jack had adventures ranging from poignant to hilarious. They were tended by black servants almost as though the family lived in the Deep South.Jane was born in the familys Huntington mansion Kenwood which is still a showplace. Her father John A. Sheppard was a prominent attorney landowner and former state senator who came west with the early oil boom. He helped develop the Boynton Pool near Muskogee and by 1917 had settled his wife Lydia; her mother; and Jane in Muskogee. Two older daughters Edwina and Pauline were married. The third Wells was in boarding school. By 1920 the family had moved to the fashionable new Buena Vista neighborhood in Tulsa near what Jane considered her forest along the Arkansas River.As Janes three sisters moved into and out of her life an undercurrent of dysfunction gradually swept her from the security of childhood in surprising directions.I edited and rearranged her material more or less chronologically and I changed two names but the memories and the naïve childs voice are hers. She begins with the train trip west--our first glimpse into a bygone era.Sally J. Bright Daughter and Editor