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.

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.

[1] James Hall (often called J. M.) was born on a farm in Marshall County, Tennessee, near the town of Belfast, on December 4, 1851.

[2] 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.

However, Hall learned that the Creek tribe, whose lands were just west of the Cherokee, had more favorable trade laws.

Although the railroad crews continued to move westward across the Arkansas, the Halls decided to remain in Tulsa.

[1][3] Haworth would serve until Charles William Kerr arrived in 1900 as the first permanent Presbyterian minister in Tulsa.

[2] He was also one of the club members who put together a successful bid in 1907 to move Henry Kendall College from Muskogee to Tulsa.