Norcross, Georgia, was established in 1870 by railroad builder and entrepreneur John J. Thrasher, an early pioneer in the settlement of Marthasville, now Atlanta. After heading north that year and buying land to build a home, he founded the town and named it for his longtime friend Jonathan Norcross, who had arrived in Marthasville in 1844, became a dry goods merchant and sawmill operator, served as Atlanta's fourth mayor from 1851 to 1852, was called the "Father of Atlanta" by the press, and ran for governor of Georgia in 1876. In 1880, Norcross citizens persuaded the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway to begin the Airline Belle commuter train to Atlanta, later extended as far as Toccoa and operated for more than 50 years. Cotton dominated Georgia's agricultural economy in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the Norcross Cotton Gin, still standing, helped farmers separate lint from seed for market. In the 1870s, Thrasher promoted Norcross as a resort destination and built the two-story Brunswick Hotel across from the city park. Around 1865, local black citizens founded Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church on Hunter Street, and blacksmith Columbus "Lum" Howell, who worked on Skin Alley from the 1920s to the 1950s, was a respected community leader and advocate for the education of black children. Roy Carlyle, one of four young men raised in Norcross who played major league baseball in the 1920s, set the record for the longest measured home run in professional baseball history at 618 feet. Rail service also shaped the town's growth: Norcross sent its first cotton shipment by rail in October 1870, and the present depot was built in 1909 by John Pettyjohn and Company for the Southern Railway after the first depot burned. Military service has also been part of the town's history, including World War I veteran Noye Nesbit, who served in France.