According to Tennessee Historical Markers in the community, one of the earliest settlers was Thomas Hall who arrived in the valley around 1796 from North Carolina. The British, in the Siege of Charleston, captured Hall. After his release from a British prisoner of war camp, Hall married Nancy Hais on September 25, 1783. For his service, the U.S. government presented Hall a parcel of land. It is to this northern side of Black Oak Ridge that Hall settled. Two generations later Thomas Hall’s grandson Pulaski went west during the California Gold Rush and settled on a ranch in Oregon. He returned to Halls and married Joyce Hall, September 8, 1859. Pulaski and his family owned and operated one of the first businesses in the Halls area as early as 1860, which included a general store and inn as well as a blacksmith shop. The store was known as Halls Crossroads.