Editing Duluth, Georgia (section)

===Railroad era and new name===
Howell's Crossing was renamed "Duluth" in 1871 after Congress funded a north–south railroad line into the community. It was named after the city of [[Duluth, Minnesota]]. The Midwestern city had gotten its own railroad connection not long before, which had prompted Rep. J. Proctor Knott, a [[Kentucky]] Democrat, to make a speech in Congress mocking the project as wasteful. That speech drew national attention. According to contemporary reports, Evan P. Howell himself jokingly suggested the name change in a speech about the arrival of railroad service in the Georgia town. (Duluth, Minnesota, is named for [[Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut]] (1636–1710), a French captain and explorer of the upper Midwest, who negotiated peace between the [[Ojibwe|Chippewa]] and the [[Sioux]] nation.)<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/d.pdf | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=66 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref>

The railroad encouraged the growth of Duluth's economy. A schoolhouse was built in 1871 on the site of what is now Coleman Middle School (formerly Duluth Middle School and Duluth Elementary School). The first [[Methodist]] church was organized in 1871, and the first [[Baptist]] congregation formed in 1886. Both churches continue today at new locations along State Route 120. The Bank of Duluth was charted in 1904, followed by the Farmers and Merchants Bank in 1911. Neither survived the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]].{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

In 1922, Duluth elected Georgia's first female mayor, [[Alice Harrell Strickland]].<ref>{{Cite web| title = Duluth Historical Society, Duluth, GA – The Strickland House| url = http://duluthhistorical.org/stricklandhouse.html| website = duluthhistorical.org| access-date = 2015-08-18| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130615194903/http://duluthhistorical.org/stricklandhouse.html| archive-date = 2013-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title = Former Mayors| url = http://www.duluthga.net/about_duluth/former_mayors.php| publisher=City of Duluth | access-date = November 29, 2016}}</ref> She donated {{convert|1|acre|m2|adj=on}} of land for a "community forest" and began efforts to conserve land for public recreation.