James Monroe Hall (1851–1935) came to the town of Tulsa in what was then known as Indian Territory. James and his brother, Harry C. Hall, operated a tent store that had followed the route of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and selected the site where the road would stop at Tulsa. They initially selected a site where the railroad crossed what would become Lewis Avenue and pitched a tent for the store there. This location was just inside the boundary of the Cherokee nation. When the Halls discovered that the Creek Nation had less restrictions on the activities of white merchants, they moved the store a couple of miles west to what would become First Street and erected a more permanent wooden building. Early life James Hall (often called J. M.) was born on a farm in Marshall County, Tennessee, near the town of Belfast, on December 4, 1851. He graduated from Union Academy in Marshall County, Tennessee when he was seventeen years old. Hall moved to Oswego, Kansas about 1868, and then moved to a site near McAlester, Indian Territory in 1874. There, he was in charge of a general store connected to a coal mining company. He also married his first wife, Lula Pigg, with whom he had three children: Juanita, Lena and Hugh. J. M. remained in McAlester for three years until the store was sold, then returned to Oswego and entered the grocery business until January, 1882. He then moved to Vinita, in Indian Territory, where he operated a store that sold supplies to men working on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Move to Tulsa The railroad extended its trackage from Vinita toward the Arkansas River. Hall moved his tent store along with the railroad as it moved southwest from Vinita. The railroad had intended to stop just inside the western boundary of Cherokee territory. However, Hall learned that the Creek tribe, whose lands were just west of the Cherokee, had more favorable trade laws. He and his brother Harry, who was then a railroad contractor, persuaded the railroad management to move the station two miles farther west, to a small Creek village called Tulsa. The Halls set up the tent store there in August 1882. Although the railroad crews continued to move westward across the Arkansas, the Halls decided to remain in Tulsa. J. M. replaced the tent with a permanent structure at what would