Peninsular Press Association

In the record (2)

1. 1880 · 1880-07-06

   Ocean City's convention trade starts in 1880: several hundred Maryland schoolteachers in July, the Peninsula's newspaper editors in August.

   The State Teachers' Association of Maryland took its annual session to the beach for three days, July 6, 7 and 8, 1880, and the terms were published statewide from Garrett County to Harford. A membership ticket cost fifty cents and had to be bought from a county school examiner in advance, because it was what unlocked the travel and board rates: half fare on the Western Maryland Railroad and the steamboat, or full fare good for the round trip, tickets valid July 2 to 13; steamboat fare Baltimore to Ocean City and return, four dollars, leaving the foot of South Street at six every evening but Saturday; rail round trip from Baltimore, six dollars, "good during the season"; and board at the Atlantic Hotel "to members, One Dollar a day for the three days the Association is in session. Afterwards $12.50 a week." A. F. Wilkerson was secretary. The Bel Air correspondent who travelled by steamer to Crisfield and then by rail over the Eastern Shore and Wicomico & Pocomoke roads counted "several hundred teachers and educa[tors]" on the beach and called Ocean City "the Cape May of Maryland, and the most popular watering place in the State." Six weeks later the editors came: "The Peninsular Press Association at its session at Ocean City this week elected the following officers: President — George W. Cruikshank, of Elkton. First Vice President — B. Everett Smith. Second Vice President — D. Taylor Bradford, of this city [Wilmington]. Secretary — W. Scott Way, of Middletown. Treasurer — O. P. Johnson." They would be back the following August, waltzing with the girls and passing resolutions of thanks to the railroad officials and to Congress Hall's Mr. Selby.

   A statewide professional convention in July and a regional press association in August, in a town with forty-nine residents. The convention trade is as old as the town charter.

   Atlantic HotelState Teachers' Association of MarylandWicomico and Pocomoke RailroadEastern Shore Steamboat Company

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 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 MarylandMaryland Bankers AssociationJohn F. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-06