Chester River Steamboat Company
company · active 1860s–1879 (Ford's presidency)
An Eastern Shore steamboat line on the Chester River, founded by Budd S. Ford, who served as its president and general business manager until his death by drowning at Ocean City on July 20, 1879. Ford's line is the reason a Queen Anne's County steamboat man was on the Ocean City beach at all: in 1879 the Shore's water carriers and its new rail-fed resort were part of the same summer economy.
In the record (1)
1879 · 1879-07-20
July 20, 1879: former state senator Budd S. Ford drowns in the surf in front of the Atlantic Hotel while thousands watch from the beach.
At five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, Hon. Budd S. Ford of Queen Anne's County — Maryland House of Delegates 1872-1874, Maryland Senate 1876-1878, and president and general business manager of the Chester River Steamboat Company — went into the surf with Mrs. E. B. Emory, wife of a Centreville gentleman, from a bench where he had been sitting among "a group of chatting friends." A correspondent's letter datelined Ocean City, July 20 and reprinted as far away as Richmond described the result: "Thousands of people lining the beach in front of the Atlantic Hotel, spellbound with horror, witnessed a strong man's vain battle with the sea, and as noble an exhibition of heroism and courage as that which gave immortality to the name of Leonidas." Ford was 39. He was buried at North East Methodist Cemetery. Two years earlier the resort's own advertising had told Wilmington readers that Ocean City, unlike Cape May, had "no such dread" of an undertow.
Source · checked 2026-08-06