TEXACO STATION DEDICATION
(ROSALIA VISITOR RESOURCE & INTERPRETIVE CENTER)
TO THE CHARLES J. HALL FAMILY & DESCENDANTS
JUNE 5, 2004
Charles
James Hall, was born January 18, 1869 in Baltimore, Maryland. Charles
left home at an early age, following the death of his mother. He worked
at a blacksmith shop in Stillwater, Minnesota. In 1889, at the age of
21, he moved to Spokane, Washington where he worked at a blacksmith shop.
On August 18, 1894, he married Sophie Wendt. They had two children, Lillian
and Edward Hall.
After Sophie died in 1898, Charles remarried to Julia Peterschick Schultz, March 3, 1901. Charles operated a blacksmith shop in Spokane called “Fall City Horse Shoeing and Carriage.” In 1907, the Halls moved to Rosalia, Washington and opened the C. J. Hall “General Blacksmithing” shop at the corner of 6th & Whitman Streets. (current location of our Texaco Station)
Mr. Hall was elected to the Rosalia Town Council and then was elected in 1919 as Mayor and served two terms. He always took an active interest in promoting the best interest of the town. He was part of Rosalia’s history for nearly 35 years. He fought for a measure on the ballot to “PAVE” the streets of Rosalia. The measure won by only 4 votes.
Charles Hall was also an inventor. In 1912 he held the patent for inventing the “Sack-Holder” for horse drawn thrashing machines later called “The Sacker” made here in Rosalia. In 1920, he invented and patented the “Tractor Hitch”. The hitch was a connection between the plow and the tractor or other implement. He improved the hitch for the auto tractor drawn plows. Mr. Hall also built sailboats, following in the footsteps of his father who earned a living as a ship’s carpenter.
Later he closed and razed the blacksmith business and in it’s place, built
the Texaco Central Service Station in 1923. The house the Hall’s
lived in was
on
the lot directly behind the station. Charles also had a workshop
down the street where he built the sailboats. It was in that shop that
Mr. Hall died while working on a project on December 8, 1941.
The Texaco Station continued to operate until it closed in early 1980’s. It remained closed until 2000, when descendants of the Hall Family donated the station and property to the Rosalia Chamber of Commerce. Rosalia would like to thank the following Charles J. Hall descendants: the families of Ludin, Jensen, Calhoun, Blakely, Petek, Johnson, Peterschick, Schultz, Wendt and Ott.