Dr. Samuel Kennedy was one of Tulsa's first doctors.  He also was the first president of Tulsa's "Pioneer Club",  His signature was one of the signatures on the now lost original charter for the city of Tulsa.

 

Dr. Kennedy was a "country" doctor who settled in Tulsa with his brother J. L. Kennedy in 1891. Kennedy wrote in his memoirs, "I was a 'specialist' in every disease and ailment known to mankind and dentistry being never heard of, I had to extract all the aching teeth for miles around".

 

When Sam Kennedy married Agnes Lombard, an Osage Indian, he used her tribal claims to acquire thousands of acres in Osage county - land that is today Gilcrease Hills and most of the land located northwest of downtown Tulsa.

 

In 1913, Dr. Kennedy drilled his first oil well in Osage Nation territory, on land that was put up for sale by the Indian Agency. He and his partner, W A Springer, accumulated $6 million in four years.

 

The question remains whether Samuel Kennedy is indirectly responsible for Tulsa's growth to the south and east of downtown. According to the story, after a dispute with city leaders over the expansion of utilities and streets, Kennedy refused to sell his land that now makes up most of north and northwest Tulsa. His refusal to sell his land delayed development north and northwest of downtown.

 

As a result, Tulsa moved south and southeast - away from the major highways and downtown. His own family owns up to the story that Dr. Kennedy inserted a clause into his will insisting that the land not be sold for 20 years. Dr. Kennedy died in 1941 and it was not until the mid 1960s that the Gilcrease Hills housing addition was started northwest of downtown.