Maryland Bankers Association
association · founded 1896
The state association of Maryland bankers. It held its third annual convention at Ocean City on 21-23 July 1898, meeting in the cafe of the Atlantic Hotel and bringing 'a hundred or two' delegates to the beach for two days — the first large trade convention this project has documented at Ocean City, and the first use of the Atlantic Hotel's new convention hall.
The bankers spent their mornings on 'questions of grave import' and their afternoons in the surf. Ocean City has been running that trade ever since.
In the record (3)
1898 · 1898-07-23
A hundred or two Maryland bankers hold their third annual convention in the cafe of the Atlantic Hotel, then go swimming.
Staff correspondence of the Washington Evening Star, datelined Ocean City, Md., July 23, 1898, under the head 'MARYLAND BANKERS — They Meet by the Breakers at Ocean City': 'Maryland bankers have invaded Ocean City to the number of a hundred or two during the past two days in attendance upon the third annual convention of their association, and, after spending their mornings considering questions of grave import in the cafe of the Atlantic Hotel, they have scooted for the bath houses like so many boys and surged into the surf, apparently oblivious that such things as overdrawn accounts or dishonored drafts ever had existence.' The convention heard William T. Dixon on the financial situation; the Star's sub-heads read 'COMBINE BUSINESS AND PLEASURE' and 'PROSPECTS ARE CHEERING.' The Westminster Democratic Advocate confirms the meeting from the other end, noting that Dr. J. Howell Billingslea went down as a delegate and that Dr. J. W. Hering, cashier of the Union National Bank, attended with his wife.
The new convention hall was two months old. Ocean City had spent a decade being the Eastern Shore's political meeting-ground; 1898 is the year it started selling itself to trade associations, which is a different and more durable business.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1899
"Convention City": in a single July, Ocean City hosts more than 300 Maryland schoolteachers and the Governor, the state's bankers, the druggists and the Democratic editors — in a hall seating a thousand.
The 32nd annual assembly of the Maryland State Teachers' Association convened at eight o'clock on the evening of 11 July 1899 at the Atlantic Hotel, its business sessions in Convention Hall, and ran through the 13th. "Gov. Lloyd Lowndes and the entire state board of education occupied the platform. President J. T. White of Cumberland presided … James E. Ellegood of Salisbury cordially welcomed the association to the eastern shore, and Prof. E. B. Prettyman of the State Normal School responded." Der Deutsche Correspondent of 12 July counted "more than 300 teachers." The Maryland Bankers' Association held its fourth annual convention there on 20 July, William F. Johnson of Snow Hill giving the address of welcome "Representing the Mayor of Ocean City" and noting it was their second year running. The druggists met the same week; the Maryland Democratic Editors' Association had come down on 18 June on the Pennsylvania Railroad superintendent's private train and been entertained by Waggaman at the Colonial. The county paper's verdict: "That the name of Worcester's favorite summer resort, Ocean City, might appropriately be changed to Convention City becomes more apparent each succeeding season." The hall that made it possible was new, owned by John F. Waggaman, and seated about a thousand. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: SHARPENED, and a fourth convention added. The Ocean City column of 22 July names the season's run in one sentence: "last week the Teachers Association and Druggists convention both met here, this week the Bankers of Maryland are now in session and next week the MARYLAND BAR ASSOCIATION will meet here, and so it goes on throughout the season." That is four state bodies in three consecutive weeks, not three. The same column names the county's bankers who attended — I. T. Matthews, Geo. S. Payne, Levi A. Purnell, L. L. Dirickson, Calvin B. Taylor, Wm. Dale, Wm. F. King and E. G. Polk, 'every bank in the county.' The teachers' choice of Ocean City is now documented as a lobbying campaign rather than an invitation accepted: see fact:1899-worcester-lobbies-the-teachers-away-from-the-mountains. The meeting-number conflict is NOT resolved and should stand. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE MEETING-NUMBER CONFLICT CAN NOW BE RESOLVED IN FAVOUR OF 'THIRTY-SECOND', and the DataConflict should be closed. The Prince George's Enquirer of 30 June 1899 prints the association's own official announcement over the name of its executive chairman: "John D. Worthington, chairman of the executive board of the State Teachers' Association of Maryland, has officially announced the 32nd annual meeting of that body, which will assemble at Ocean City, Md., July 11, 12 and 13. The headquarters of the association will be at the Atlantic Hotel, and the business sessions will be held in Convention Hall." That is the same officer whose committee chose Ocean City in May, announcing the meeting number himself, and it agrees with the Evening Star's dispatch. The Messenger's 'twenty-third' should be recorded as an error of its own or of its compositor. Provenance confidence can move from conflicting to verified.
Before it was a boardwalk town, Ocean City was a conference town — and it got there by owning the only room on the lower Eastern Shore that could hold a thousand people.
Atlantic HotelState Teachers' Association of MarylandPeninsular Press AssociationJohn F. Waggaman
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1902 · 1902-06-30
Ocean City's 1902 season opened with two state conventions back to back at the Atlantic Hotel — the largest teachers' meeting the association had ever held, then the Maryland State Bar Association.
"The early birds at Ocean City this season will be the members of the State Teachers' Association and the Maryland Bar Association. These two organizations will lap each other in their stay and cover the period from June 30 to July 3, leaving the 4th to be celebrated by excursionists from all parts of the peninsula and from Baltimore, Washington and other cities ... The headquarters of the Teachers' and Bar Associations will be the Atlantic Hotel." The teachers' meeting "was the largest ever held since the formation of the association"; Joseph Blair of Sparrow's Point was elected president, and both State Superintendent M. Bates Stephens and the outgoing president F. Eugene Wathen argued at the opening for better pay for county teachers. The State Board of Education met at Ocean City on 1 July with Governor John Walter Smith presiding and elected the vice-principal of State Normal School No. 2 at Frostburg. The lawyers followed: "Most of the Worcester lawyers are attending the meeting of the State Bar Association now in session at Ocean City ... among the most distinguished visitors are Judges McSherry, Page, Pearce, and other members of the Court of Appeals." Judge James Alfred Pearce used his address there to recount the Civil War arrest of Judge Richard Carmichael, dragged bleeding from his own bench by a federal provost marshal. In May the paper had already run the headline "OCEAN CITY CONVENTIONS — School Teachers And Lawyers Will Assemble This Year," arguing that the pharmaceutical, lawyers', bankers' and Republican delegates who had come before "have almost unanimously so declared" the resort the right place for the state's professional bodies.
State Teachers' Association of MarylandMaryland State Bar AssociationMaryland Pharmaceutical AssociationJohn Walter Smith
Source · checked 2026-08-06