Archie Davis
fire chief, Ocean City · active 1939
Chief of the Ocean City fire company in 1939. He came before the council with Capt. T. J. Moore and F. W. Truitt on 18 April over the new American LaFrance pumper, having agreed on his own authority to change the order the mayor and council had signed for a 750-gallon pumper to a 1,000-gallon one; the council, 'not being able to understand why the Council was not Contacted on change', instructed the secretary to write American LaFrance direct asking why.
In the record (3)
1939 · 1939-04-18
From 1939 the telephone operator in Ocean City could set off the fire alarm herself
The minute of 18 April 1939: 'Ordinance passed to have C&P Telephone Co put in alarm plug in in Central office so operator could set off alarm.' On 3 March the council had resolved to buy a new American LaFrance Foamite pumper for $8,500 and the old truck, in three annual payments; notes for $2,833 each were signed by the mayor and treasurer on 23 May, the machine to start 1 July at 6 per cent. In December the town granted the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company a franchise ordinance for its poles and conduits, section 3 of which reserved space on one crossarm or in one duct, free of charge, 'for the purpose of carrying wires of any fire alarm or police telegraph system owned and maintained by said City'.
Fourteen years after the fire that took the downtown, Ocean City's fire alarm finally stopped depending on somebody running to it. The town put the switch in the one building that was staffed all night and never closed - and then wrote free wire-space for it into the telephone company's franchise, which is a small town making certain the thing can never be taken away.
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone CompanyAmerican LaFrance Foamite Inc.Harold J. RayneT. J. Moore
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1941 · 1941-09-15
The fire company asked for room to house another engine; the town found it by tearing out the heating plant, and paid Harry J. Cropper $975 to do it.
On Monday evening 15 September 1941, 'Fire chief Peacock and Allen Quillen were present asking that room be provided for housing another engine and council agreed to see if space could be provided by changeing heating plant and secretary ordered to secure prices on makeing the change.' Ten days later, on 25 September, 'Heating plant was discussed with Harry J. Cropper and he offered to make the change for $975. and on motion by Harold Rayne seconed by Raymond Bounds that order be given to Ma.Cropper for plant.' Nine hundred and seventy-five dollars is most of what the town had just voted the Chamber of Commerce, and it bought floor space rather than apparatus. Twelve weeks later Morris Peacock was one of the two men the council put over the Department of Fire Protection of its new home defence council, alongside Archie Davis, who had been the company's chief in 1939. The same statutory year had already brought the company money from Annapolis: Chapter 37 of the Acts of 1941, approved 15 April, required three-quarters of the sums raised in Worcester County to be divided equally among the incorporated volunteer fire companies of Ocean City, Berlin, Newark, Snow Hill, Stockton, Bishopville and Pocomoke City.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentMorris PeacockHarry J. CropperHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsClifford P. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1941 · 1941-12-11
Four days after Pearl Harbor and on the day Germany declared war, the Ocean City council sat down and organised a home defence council — eleven departments, twenty-two names, and a Department of Evacuation.
The 1940 minute book does not mention the war once, in the year of the fall of France. The 1941 book does not mention it either — until 11 December. The council met at 7:15 on Thursday evening with Mayor C. P. Cropper and Councilmen Harold Rayne and Raymond Bounds, granted a building permit to Chas. S. Powell for a two-apartment dwelling on the alley between 11th and 12th Streets, let the English Diner move to a site next to the Post Office on Dr. Chas. W. Purnell's ground, and resolved to borrow from the Bank of Ocean City to meet bonds and coupons due 1 January. Then: 'Mr. S. Earl Tromley, John I. Timmons and Miss Lena Riggin were present to help in organizeing home defence council and the following were selected to head the orginization.' Those three were not helpful neighbours. As the Worcester Democrat printed a week later, they were the entire executive of the Worcester County Council of Defense — Tromley its Executive Director, Timmons its Chief Air Raid Warden, and Miss Lena H. Riggin its Executive Secretary, all three of Snow Hill — going town to town. They were carrying an order. The same paper prints the telegram that sent them: 'Supplementing my telegram December 10, immediate arrangements must be made to hold blackouts just as quickly as possible. No delay in this matter, as conditions are very serious. Let me know when ready. Col. Henry Barrett, Director of air raid Precaution Service for Maryland.' The roster Ocean City adopted that night, verbatim from the minute: John B. Lynch, Commander. Harold Rayne and L. B. Cropper, Dept. of Public Safety. J. M. Mumford and Robert Allen, Dept. of Public Works. Dr. F. J. Townsend and Guy R. P. Dennis, Dept. Public Health. Archie Davis and Morris Peacock, Dept. Fire Protection. D. Trimper Sr. and Denard Baker, Dept. Transporation. Arthur Davis and Preston Laws, Dept. Gen. Supplies. Rev. Dewees and F. W. Truitt, Dept. Evacuation. Willie Ludlam and Gladys Jackson, Red Cross. E. M. Scott and Chas. J. Jackson, Communication. Bob Jackson and Wm. H. Purnell, Air Wardens. The council adjourned at eleven. Pocomoke City's mayor and council met specially the same Thursday evening and resolved to organise a Civilian Defense Corps of their own, and Pocomoke's published department list — Public Safety, Evacuation, Transportation, Communications, Public Works, Fire Protection, General Supply, Public Health — is the same scheme under the same headings. So the eleven departments were a template handed down, not a local invention; what Ocean City supplied was twenty-two names, and the names are the whole value of the document. By 18 December the county could report that Home Defense Corps in Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, Berlin and Ocean City were 'now complete in every detail', and Mayor Clifford P. Cropper sat on the county council himself.
Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseBank of Ocean CityClifford P. CropperHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsJohn B. LynchS. Earl TromleyMiss Lena H. RigginGladys JacksonMorris PeacockWillie LudlamFrancis J. TownsendL. B. CropperRobert AllenJ. M. MumfordDaniel Trimper, Sr.W. Preston LawsF. W. TruittEdward M. ScottWilliam H. Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11