Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.

In the record (37)

1. 1906

   Ocean City lots in 1906: $200 for a bare corner on Baltimore Avenue, $1,060 for oceanfront next to the Life-Saving Station.

   The Worcester County real-estate transfer column gives a run of 1906 Ocean City prices. In March, John D. Showell bought from Elizabeth R. Talty et al. a lot "situate in Ocean City, fronting on Atlantic Avenue and immediately north of the Government Life Saving Station" for $1,060. In February, Daniel Trimper, Jr. bought from Edward M. and Elizabeth M. Scott a lot with improvements on Caroline Street for $1,200. In November, Clayton J. Purnell bought from Joshua J. Dunton — the Ocean City life-saving keeper — the vacant lot at Baltimore Avenue and North Division Street for $200, and announced he would "erect thereon a two story house before next summer"; the same column records Robert L. Purnell buying the lot at the south-east corner of Baltimore Avenue and Caroline Street from the Markoes for $500, and Joshua J. Dunton buying a lot in or near Ocean City on the Sinepuxent Beach from Joseph C. S. Blackburn, Trustee. In January, Mary L. Dean bought a piece of ground with buildings in Ocean City from Katherine E. Malone for $6,500 and William B. S. Powell a tract in Ocean City on Synepuxent Beach for $1,400, while William J. Quillin, Jr. paid $375 for a house and lot at Talbot Street and St. Louis Avenue. And in December, William B. S. Powell bought from Joshua J. Dunton and wife a lot with buildings "in or near Ocean City, on the Sinepuxent Beach" for $1,000, while Edward M. Scott bought a lot with buildings on Sinepuxent Beach from the Ocean City Development Company for a nominal consideration.

   John D. ShowellClayton J. PurnellCapt. Joshua J. DuntonJoseph C. S. BlackburnWilliam B. S. Powell

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1913

   The town's legally required August accounts, printed in 1912, are not printed in 1913.

   Chapters 561 and 658 of 1904 require the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City to publish an itemised statement of receipts and disbursements each August, and the 1912 pass found one — "FINANCIAL REPORT OF OCEAN CITY, MD., From August 1st, 1911, to August 1st, 1912," signed by treasurer J. W. Quillen, in the Messenger of 10 August 1912. No such statement appears anywhere in the 1913 file. All 147 pages of the Snow Hill Democratic Messenger that mention Ocean City in 1913 were read in full, including every August issue, and none carries a financial report, a levy, or a rate. What the year does yield of municipal money is indirect: the county levy pays the Ocean City Bridge Company its $500 appropriation, and pays W. B. S. Powell $70.00 and John Hagan $54.70 as registration officers and judges of Ocean City's own election precinct, with Daniel Trimper, Jr., $18.20 as judge and Edwin P. Calhoun $17.60 as clerk.

   Ocean City Bridge CompanyWilliam B. S. Powell

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

3. 1918

   Daniel Trimper Jr. buys Casper T. Marston's Atlantic Avenue property at the north end of Ocean City for $1,500.

   From the county's recorded transfers, Messenger 4 May 1918: "Daniel Trimper, Jr., from Casper T. Marston and wife, property on the west side of Atlantic Avenue, on the north side of Ocean City. Consideration, $1,500." Marston's cottage had been damaged in the April storm three weeks earlier. The same list records Charles A. McGregor buying from John M. Mumford real estate at the northeast corner of Philadelphia Avenue and North Second Street. A Trimper buying land in the year the Trimper name first appears in the town's election machinery -- "D. Trimper, Jr." served as a Republican judge of election for the Third District, Precinct 2, in the November 1918 poll.

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1923 · 1923-02-14

   The Ocean City Firemen's Association holds its annual chicken pot pie dinner, and the paper prints its whole slate of officers.

   Worcester Democrat, 17 February 1923, 'Ocean City Holds Annual Fire Association Banquet': "The Firemen's Association[,] one of the most important as well as one of the most active and efficient organizations of Ocean City, held its annual Chicken Pot Pie Dinner at the Fire House on Wednesday evening of this week… the social element was greatly enhanced because the wives and sweethearts of the valiant firemen were present. Speeches were made by the officers, led by Ralph Dennis, lieutenant; Clifford Cropper, president; Charles Cropper, chief; and Frank Truitt, secretary." Three weeks earlier the company had elected four boys — George Baaker, James Jester, Stacy Ludlam and Daniel Trimper, Jr. — as "runners," "to assist the firemen in case of fire in the way of alarms and the carrying of needed articles from the fire house."

   Seven months before the Mount Pleasant burned, the town's fire company was a dinner club with four teenage messengers. It was also, that night, enough.

   Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentClifford P. Cropper

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

5. 1923 · 1923-02-18

   Daniel Trimper turns seventy-two, surrounded by four generations, and is still running the amusement park himself.

   Worcester Democrat, 24 February 1923: "Mr. Daniel Trimper celebrated his 72d birthday on Sunday, surrounded by his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren." The paper names the party — Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Trimper, Sr.; Mrs. Margaret Gordon with her son William, his wife and daughter Elizabeth; Mrs. Katie Trimper and her daughters Katherine and Matilda; Mr. William Turner; Mr. Howard Turner; Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Scott and their sons Edward and William; Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Trimper, Jr. and their son Daniel 3d; Mr. Granville Trimper; Miss Elizabeth Laws; Rev. Edmund Burk and Miss Mary Burk — and adds: "Mr. Trimper bears his seventy-two years splendidly, being hale and hearty and actively engaged in the work of his Amusement Park on the Boardwalk." The same winter he "altered the basement into a complete apartment, and built a sun parlor of stained glass at the rear of his cottage on Baltimore avenue."

   Trimper RidesOcean City BoardwalkThe Trimper Family

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

6. 1923 · 1923-02-24

   A thirteen-year-old is given a radio set at Ocean City — and the Knights of King Arthur, of whom he is King, organise a baseball nine.

   Worcester Democrat, 3 March 1923: "Mr. William Scott, whose thirteenth birthday dawned last Saturday, gave a quiet reception to his young friends at the home of his father, Mr. E. M. Scott, on Sunday afternoon. The Knights of King Arthur, of whom William is King, and the Radio Set were presented in good form." The guests included Daniel Trimper, David Lynch, James Jester, William Bunting and Russell Townsend, and the column notes drily that "another Daniel Trimper tried to get into the party, but not having his credentials left early." The week before, on 24 February: "The Knights of King Arthur have organized a base ball nine and are already practicing for their spring opening."

   This is the earliest radio set the registry can put in an Ocean City house, and it arrived as a boy's birthday present.

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

7. 1924

   Daniel Trimper, Jr. buys a lot on the east side of Philadelphia Avenue.

   Among the Worcester County transfers of 17 May 1924: 'Daniel Trimper, Jr., from George B. Givans and wife, lot on the East side of Philadelphia avenue, in Ocean City.' The only Trimper business item in the whole 1924 corpus — the amusement park itself goes unmentioned all year, as does Luna Park, which has now been absent from the record for four years.

   Trimper Rides

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

8. 1926 · 1926-01-09

   The only appearance of the Trimper name in 674 pages: Daniel Trimper named to a Worcester County committee alongside Mayor McCabe.

   Worcester Democrat, 9 January 1926, listing a county committee: 'Edgar J. James, D. Lynch, W. W. McCabe, W. B. Powell, Charles Powell, Daniel Trimper, Ocean City.' That is the whole of it. 'Trimper' appears exactly once in the 674-page 1926 corpus, and the amusement park is not mentioned at all — as in 1924. The silence is real but it is mostly the missing Ocean City column: the town has no weekly correspondent in any digitised paper in 1926, and its own attempt to buy one failed in July. 'Luna Park' returns zero hits for the sixth consecutive year.

   Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

   William W. McCabe

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

9. 1936 · 1936-07-16

   The government lit the inlet and the bay channel in 1936, and made Daniel Trimper, Jr. the inspector of the lights

   In April 1936 Congressman T. Alan Goldsborough announced that the United States had bought materials and equipment for channel markers to be erected in Sinepuxent and Chincoteague Bays between Chincoteague Island, Va. and Ocean City, on advice from L. M. Hopkins, Superintendent of Lighthouses. In July the Department of Commerce awarded the placing of twenty-nine buoys, ten of them lighted, in the Sinepuxent and upper Chincoteague bays between the Ocean City Inlet and Robins Marsh to the Marvin E. Cox Company of Nanticoke, and the Lighthouse Service appointed Daniel Trimper, Jr. of Ocean City as Inspector of the thirty-odd markers and beacons. 'Inspector Trimper has already taken over his new duties.' The markers stand half a mile apart at Buffington Point, Coffin's Point, Powell's Point, Nellie's Bar, Sandy Point and onward, with additional beacons at the inlet proper.

   The man who ran the carousel was also, from July 1936, the federal government's inspector of the lights that told boats where the channel was.

   Ocean City Inlet & JettyT. Alan Goldsborough

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

10. 1936 · 1936-10-23

    Offered a $75,000 federal boardwalk, Ocean City chose to make its own property owners pay instead

    Rebuilding the wrecked boardwalk was argued out in public for six weeks. At a city-wide meeting reported on 1 October, Mayor Elliott said the town needed about $75,000 to rebuild the ocean-front walk from the Ocean City pier northward to its terminus, over a mile and a half, and that the city was without such funds - while the charter put the expense on the individual owners of the adjacent properties, a proposition Ocean City residents 'have attacked as unfair and are united in their stand to refuse'. On 17 October Arthur K. Hungerford, State Director for Maryland of the National Emergency Council, told some eighty Ocean City business people at Col. Joseph M. Mann's cottage that there were no federal flood-control funds available, that hurricane money would have to come from the PWA or the WPA, and that a WPA grant would require Ocean City to furnish 55 to 60 per cent of the total cost. He proposed thirds: boardwalk property owners, the Mayor and Council, and the WPA. Daniel Trimper, Jr. costed the piling alone at about $21,000 - three thousand piles, four or five months to drive with average relief labour. Then on Friday evening 23 October the mayor, his three councilmen and the citizens' boardwalk committee met and abandoned the federal application altogether. Edmond Johnson, the town solicitor, read the council the law on compelling property owners to rebuild and said that in his judgment the city was holding the bag if it sponsored a WPA project. The minute is blunt: 'A long discussion was had and finally decided to go ahead & rebuild the walk without government aid.' — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The refusal held through the rebuilding. The Democratic Messenger of 11 March 1937 states that the ocean-front owners built the walk themselves, 'refusing to accept Federal or other financial aid'. The finished job cost $38,945.63, of which the assessed owners paid $17,377.92 and the town paid $21,567.71 — so the town, having refused $75,000 of federal money in October 1936, ended by paying more than half of a much smaller bill out of its own funds.

    A town that had spent 1935 begging Washington for a sewer spent 1936 refusing Washington a boardwalk - because the arithmetic said the charter was cheaper: $53,900 by ordinance against $75,000 by grant, and no waiting.

    Ocean City BoardwalkFederal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Thomas ElliottDr. Charles Washington Purnell

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

11. 1937 · 1937-03-19

    Eleven men of the Ocean City Yacht Club came to the council in March 1937 to ask for Fourteenth Street

    'Delegation from Yacht Club were present asking for 14th street improvement, those present were, F. W. Truitt, Dr. C. R. Laws, J. B. Lynch, Cecil Blake, Wm. Bennett, H. Gundy, D. Trimper Jr., Parker Smith, Dr. Burkman, Josh Bunting. Dr. Laws Explained what they wanted & Council promised to let them know in few days.' The council did not let them know: on 31 March a 'Letter from Yacht Club read asking that answer be given on grading 14th street', and no answer is recorded that night either. The delegation is a roll of the resort's establishment - a former president of the Board of Trade, a Trimper, the man who had chaired the citizens' boardwalk committee in 1936 - turning up in a body over the grading of one bayside street.

    Ocean City Yacht ClubF. W. TruittJohn B. LynchCecil BlakeC. Parker Smith

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

12. 1937 · 1937-07-02

    Seaside, Inc. spent 1937 selling the ground around the new fishing harbour, lot by lot, some of it for $70

    The Corps of Engineers dug the West Ocean City harbour in 1936. In 1937 somebody sold the banks. The Worcester Democrat's weekly Real Estate Transfers column records Seaside, Inc. conveying lot after lot on 'Ocean City Harbor' and 'Harbor Road' in the Tenth Election District through the year: to 'J. Edwin Davis and Levin D. Lynch, partners trading as Davis and Lynch Fishing Company' on 2 July for a consideration of $70, and to the same firm again in October; to Daniel Trimper, Jr. in July; and to Louis S. Parsons, Chas. R. Laws, S. Dodd Shuter and Emar Nilsen. That is a commercial fishing port assembling itself in public, in a newspaper column, in the twelve months after the water was there - the shore plant that the visiting trawler captain said in August was the one thing the best harbour on the Atlantic still lacked.

    Seaside, Inc.Davis and Lynch Fishing Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

13. 1937 · 1937-08-05

    Twelve boats off Ocean City took thirty-two white marlin in a single day in July 1937 — called at the time a world record

    'Thirty-two white marlin were caught in the Atlantic Ocean off Ocean City last week by fishing parties, constituting a world's record for white marlin in one day,' the Messenger reported on 5 August 1937 under the head 'World's Record Marlin Catch At Ocean City'. 'A fleet of around twelve deep sea fishing boats participated.' Jack and Paul Townsend took five of them; James B. Whaley of Snow Hill three. Bill Dickey and Lou Gehrig had been fishing off the town the week before. It was that kind of season: the first marlin of 1937 fell to L. C. Dawson of Baltimore on 1 July; a hundred-pounder taken by Robert Jones of Washington from Capt. Crawford Savage's Hilda cost 'a 2-hour-40-minute fight, the longest on record locally', and came aboard with its sword snapped off; Jimmy Foxx landed a 72-pound marlin in thirty-five minutes from the same captain's boat in August while his companion Moe Berg took a dolphin; and the Bonnie Sprae, owned by Dan Trimper and William Scott and captained by Ray Savage, brought in three marlin of 65, 91 and 78 pounds from thirty miles out. At the Ocean City Day dinner at Baltimore's Lord Baltimore Hotel in October, before two hundred sportsmen, J. Paul Blundon of Keyser, West Virginia took the Eastern Shore Times trophy for the season's largest white marlin at 130 pounds, and Paul Townsend was named to the United States tuna team to meet the British Empire team at Wedgeport, Nova Scotia.

    The Ocean City Marlin Club is still three years away and the town is already claiming world records — with a Yankee first baseman, a Yankee catcher and a catcher who spoke seven languages and would later spy for the OSS all fishing out of the same harbour.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceOcean City Yacht Club

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

14. 1944 · 1944-08-07

    Ocean City cast 452 votes on 7 August 1944, turned out its wartime mayor and both sitting councilmen, and made Daniel Trimper Jr. mayor.

    The municipal election was held in the Engine Room of the Fire House, polls open 2 to 6 PM, with Clarence Wright, Joseph Elliott and Charles Clark as judges. 452 votes were cast. For mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 231, Clifford P. Cropper 160. For council: John B. Lynch 268, Rudolph Dolle 200, Cranford O. Savage 199, Henry J. Burbage 175, Harold J. Rayne 159, Herman D. Parsons 102. The sitting mayor lost and both sitting councilmen finished last. Dolle and Savage had both stood against the Red Star bus terminal as private citizens three months earlier. Trimper, Lynch, Dolle and Savage took office on 1 September 1944 for a two-year term. Bound with the return is a typed letter of 3 August 1944: 'Gentlemen kindly accept my resignation from being a member of your Council as of August 3 1944, AS my duties are of such nature they so compel me too.' - E. Raymond Bounds, resigning four days before the poll.

    Clifford P. CropperJohn B. LynchRudolph DolleHarold J. RayneE. Raymond Bounds

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

15. 1944 · 1944-09-11

    Ocean City's new mayor and council were sworn in by Judge James B. Robins on 11 September 1944 and organised with John B. Lynch as president, Rudolph Dolle secretary and Cranford O. Savage treasurer.

    'New Mayor & Council met promptly at 7:30 PM in Council Room at Municipal Building.' Mayor-elect Daniel Trimper Jr. was sworn first by Judge James B. Robins, then the three councilmen-elect all at one time. They discussed the handling and disposition of garbage, Board Walk repairs and improvement, the Chamber of Commerce's attempt to buy a truck fit to haul garbage, a police car, and other improvements. The clerk was instructed to order a spray of flowers for Edward Powell and to pay his family ten days' vacation and the balance of salary due him - Powell, one of the policemen voted $100 for the use of his car on 9 September, had died between the 9th and the 11th. Three days later the hurricane came.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceJohn B. LynchRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

16. 1944 · 1944-09-15

    The hurricane of 14 September 1944 wrecked enough of Ocean City's Boardwalk that the council met at ten the next morning to board it off and nail up signs to keep people away.

    The Great Atlantic Hurricane struck the coast on 14 September 1944. Ocean City's council met at 10 AM on Friday the 15th, Mayor Trimper and all members present, four days into their term. Storm damage was discussed. On motion by C. O. Savage, seconded by J. B. Lynch, Mayor Trimper was to call Mr. P. A. Morrison of the State Roads Commission and see if he could get Baltimore Avenue and Philadelphia Avenue cleared at State cost and the sand heaped up on the side streets and removed, and Trimper was authorised to get the work done. Letters were to be sent to Governor O'Conor and to the Commander of the State Police thanking them for their aid during the storm. The council moved to board off the Board Walk where dangerous and nail signs to keep off, and decided not to try to wreck any more of the walk except to remove it off the street where it bothered traffic. By 3 October the State Roads had cleared the sand and the town wrote to thank Morrison for it.

    Ocean City BoardwalkMaryland State Police

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

17. 1944 · 1944-10-03

    Ocean City paid $3,990 for the Railroad Lot in October 1944, four months after refusing the railroad's price, and $10 to Daniel Trimper for the money he had put up to hold it.

    On motion by Lynch, seconded by Savage, the Railroad Lot purchased from Frank Magee was to be paid for at $3,990.00, with $10 to D. Trimper for money paid by him to hold the lot. In June the old council had told the B. & E. Railroad Company's real-estate man it was not interested in the freight lots at the price asked; in September the new council sent the mayor and Councilman Dolle to try to buy the freight house lot between South Division Street and Worcester Street. The same October meeting had Surveyor Thomas before it showing charts and maps of the Survey and how the sand was shifting from certain areas of the Inlet.

    Ocean City Inlet & JettyJohn B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

18. 1944 · 1944-10-24

    Ocean City's property owners were invited to say how the Boardwalk should be rebuilt, and what they asked for was concrete.

    The council left the City office for the Firemen's room to debate the best means of building boardwalk and to hear the invited property owners: Thomas Shill and wife, Elizabeth Strohecker and daughter, Dale Showell, A. M. Jackson, Chas. J. Jackson, F. W. Truitt, H. J. Cropper and wife, Cullen Jenkins, John Hagan, Dr. C. W. Purnell, Jr. Evans, Harry Gunby, Earl Conley and A. W. Ball. Mayor Trimper gave a financial statement, then handed the hearing to the President of Council, John B. Lynch, who gave the estimated cost of building the walk at present prices and asked the owners for the best method and materials. Dr. Purnell, Earl Conley, Tom Shill, Frank Truitt and John Hagan spoke, wanting to investigate the cost of a cement walk, which they said could be built much cheaper and last longer. The council agreed to investigate the concrete idea. The record of the storm broadcast was played for the gathering. Earlier the same evening the council had ruled that any pile driven east of the walk in front of the 16th Street walk was to be driven 8 feet 6 inches from it.

    Ocean City BoardwalkJohn B. LynchDr. Charles Washington PurnellHarry J. Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

19. 1944 · 1944-11-28

    Ocean City's Boardwalk stayed wood because concrete was too dear: the plans were brought in on 28 November 1944 and the cost killed them the same night.

    Clark Gardner and Geo. Purnell brought plans for a concrete walk and presented them to the council, and as the cost was prohibitive the council decided to continue the same construction with lumber for the present. It is the resolution of the debate the property owners opened on 24 October, when they asked the town to price a cement walk because it would be cheaper and last longer. The same meeting decided to bill property owners $25 a lot for the work of rebuilding a 16-foot walk; found the walk from 1st Street to 4th Street in such condition that it was best to build new rather than waste time and materials on the old, and ordered every owner notified by letter that if they did not act within 20 days the council would build and charge it to the property; accepted a five-year contract from the Electric Light officials for relighting the city streets, signed by the mayor and witnessed by the clerk; and heard Mayor Trimper ask every councilman to attend a meeting at Snow Hill on Thursday evening on post-war planning.

    Ocean City BoardwalkEastern Shore Public Service CompanyClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

20. 1945 · 1945-02-14

    About seventy people came to Ocean City's bus terminal hearing on 14 February 1945: the property owners within 250 feet voted 14 to 4 for it, and the room voted 26 to 14 against.

    The council recessed to the firemen's room to hold a hearing on the Red Star application for a terminal on the site of the North Garage, of which every property owner within 250 feet had been notified. About 70 people were present. Mayor Trimper explained the object of the meeting and the President of Council, John B. Lynch, presided. A vote of the property owners within 250 feet was taken and there were 14 for and 4 against, with 8 not present and one who wanted to see plans. Frank Sacca, Lewis Hardcastle, Dr. Guy Dennis and Mrs. Harriet Cropper spoke against the terminal, and Sacca insisted a vote be taken of the people present: 14 voted for and 26 opposed. Two rival applications were read at the same sitting - James D. Jarman's to build on a lot in rear of the Rideau Hotel, and one from the Union Buss Station Co., signed by Frank Sacca, on the old railroad station lot, 120 by 250 feet. Nine days later the council granted the Red Star permit anyway.

    Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.John B. LynchFrank SaccaJames D. Jarman

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

21. 1945 · 1945-02-23

    Ocean City granted the bus terminal 2-1 at a Friday morning meeting nine days after a public hearing voted 26 to 14 against it - the only vote against coming from the man who had opposed it as a citizen.

    The council met at 11:30 on the morning of Friday 23 February with Mayor Trimper and all three councilmen present. Cranford O. Savage moved that the permit be granted to Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc. to build a bus terminal on the site of the North Garage as applied for on 8 February and amended on 20 February. John B. Lynch seconded. The mayor asked for the vote: Savage yes, Lynch yes, Rudolph Dolle no, and Mayor Trimper expressed his sentiment as yes. The application was signed by Lynch as President of Council with Savage as witness, and the meeting adjourned at 12:20. Savage and Dolle had both stood before the old council as private citizens in May 1944 to oppose the same company's terminal; the council refused it then. On 20 February the council had been unable to agree, had made the company strike the gasoline station off its application, and had gone to Salisbury to talk it over with the bus officials.

    Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Cranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

22. 1945 · 1945-05-15

    Ocean City's 1945 licence ordinance took three readings and two passages: adopted on 20 March, rewritten and passed again on 15 May as Ordinance #100.

    The council went over Ordinance L-3 item by item on 10 January, spending two and a half hours and setting a further debate; gave the fee schedule a second reading on 13 March and ordered it posted; and on 20 March, with Dale Showell, Elizabeth Strohecker and Chas. and Lee Jackson present wanting to know what the fees would be, made the third reading and passed it on motion by R. Dolle seconded by C. O. Savage, unanimously, ordering it printed. On 5 April Attorney Whaley was instructed to write the ordinance up as passed. On 15 May the secretary read a letter from Whaley about it, and the ordinance was rewritten as of 15 May and passed as Ordinance #100, signed by President of Council John B. Lynch and Mayor Daniel Trimper and tested by J. M. Mumford, Secretary.

    John B. LynchJ. M. MumfordJohn S. WhaleyRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

23. 1945 · 1945-11-05

    Thirteen Ocean City property owners objected to a $15,000 filling station at Philadelphia Avenue and 2nd Street, not one spoke for it, and the council refused it.

    The council gave Magee Oil Co.'s application a hearing on Wednesday 31 October at 8 PM, having written to every property owner within 250 feet. Present were S. J. Quillin, Wm. Gibbs, Joe and Jennie Elliott, Paul Quillin and wife, Gertrude Koenig, Frank Tyre, and Irma Krueger who came late. Paul and Raymond Magee appeared for the company and Raymond Magee described the building proposed - all steel porcelain construction. John B. Lynch, President of Council, acted as chairman and asked each owner present their views: Frank Tyre not in favour; Gibbs, S. J. Quillin, the Elliotts, the Quillins and Gertrude Koenig all objecting; Wm. Cropper objecting by letter; Irma Krueger objecting after the meeting. Mayor Trimper asked how much the station was to cost and was told $15,000. The hearing closed at 9 PM without any action taken. On 5 November the council took the application up, the clerk read letters from Tom Spencer, Alice Parker, Mrs. Harry Parsons, James Phillips and Beulah Farson - all out of the city when the hearing was had, all opposed - and on motion duly carried the application was refused.

    John B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

24. 1945 · 1945-11-20

    Ocean City's first zoning ordinance ran to thirty-eight pages, was read aloud in a single afternoon, and was signed over to the council after a steak dinner at City Lunch.

    The council met the Zoning Commission at 3 PM on Tuesday 20 November: Mayor Trimper with Dolle, Lynch and Savage; Frank Waller, Harland Huston, Walter Jarman, J. P. Whaley and C. W. Purnell for the commission, with Clark Gardner, Purnell, Wm. Price and John Whaley. Chairman Frank Waller called the meeting to order and Wm. Price read and commented on the 38-page document, finishing at 6:30, at which point the meeting adjourned to go to City Lunch for a steak dinner. Afterwards the members returned to the council office, had further discussion, and the document was signed by the Zoning members and turned over to the City Council. The mayor and council then arranged for a public hearing and its advertising, to be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 19 December and the morning of Saturday 22 December 1945. On 26 November the council resolved unanimously, John B. Lynch moving and R. Dolle seconding, that the report be accepted.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionClark GardnerJohn S. WhaleyDr. Charles Washington PurnellJohn P. Whaley

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

25. 1945 · 1945-12-04

    On its regular December meeting night, only Ocean City's mayor and one councilman came, and the sitting was called off at a quarter past eight.

    'The Mayor Daniel Trimper and Councilman C. O. Savage were the only ones present at regular meeting night.' The two of them granted Anthony Purnell a permit to build on 5th Street on another lot, and then, as no other member of council had come, the meeting was called off at 8:15. It is the third such failure in two years: on 29 July 1944 the clerk could get only Mayor Cropper and Herman Parsons, and on 12 August 1944 he could get no meeting at all and was instructed over the telephone. It falls in the busiest fortnight of the town's year - between the signing over of the zoning ordinance and its two public hearings.

    Cranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

26. 1945 · 1945-12-19

    About twenty-five people came to Ocean City's first zoning hearing on 19 December 1945, and a stenographer took down every objection - and the transcript is not in the town's record.

    The mayor and city council met at 2 PM in the Firemen's Room to hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance and zoning map, with Attorney Wm. Price and a stenographer, and a Mr. McAveney and a second man from Baltimore representing the Fire Board. About twenty-five people were present; the ordinance was read and objections noted by Mr. Price, and the meeting adjourned at 5 PM to reconvene on the Saturday morning. On 22 December the hearing resumed at 10 AM, called to order by Mayor Trimper, with Savage the only councilman present - Dolle absent through sickness and Lynch called out of town. Price conducted it and had his stenographer take the minutes of the meeting and the names of those present; all who wished to be heard made their statements, and it adjourned at 12:05. Neither transcript, nor any list of who objected, is in the portal. The minute book closes four days later with the ordinance still unadopted.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionCranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

27. 1946 · 1946-04-03

    Five weeks before adoption the Ocean City council sat down with the zoning map and moved district lines by hand, enlarging one business area to the ocean and turning half of another into residential.

    The full board met with Attorney Wm. Price on the evening of Wednesday 3 April 1946 'to go over the Zoning ordinance & map', and the meeting proceeded by reading the map. Approval was made of areas 7 and 11 as Industrial as outlined; of the B.B. area as laid down on the map; and of B areas 4 to 9. Then two changes: 'B area 4 enlarged to a point midway between First Street & Second Street, north to extend to Ocean', and 'Line dividing area 10 from area 9 moved South half a block, and remainder of area 9 created as residential area'. The one formal motion of the night, by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, abolished all distinction as to side and rear yard regulation in residential use districts and made it uniform as prescribed for A Area district in the Zoning Commission's final report. The meeting rose at 11:20. The council met again the following evening, read on, and the clerk recorded that 'nothing definitely done', adjourning at 11:30.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionJohn B. LynchCranford O. SavageRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

28. 1946 · 1946-05-03

    On the evening of Friday 3 May 1946 Ocean City read its zoning ordinance through one last time, declared it 'as they wanted it', and fixed its passage for the following Tuesday.

    The full board met with Wm. H. Price, attorney for Zoning, and the engineer. 'The entire Zoning ordinance was read over and changes in map were noted. Council agreed that the Ordinance was as they wanted it, and Attorney Price was instructed to prepare the Ordinance so it could be finally passed at next regular monthly meeting to be held on May 7th 1946.' The meeting rose at 10:30. The sequence from there is complete: the commission's report signed over 20 November 1945, public hearings 19 and 22 December 1945, the council reading and amending on 3, 4, 11 and 25 April 1946, the final read-through on 3 May, counsel's draft minute on 4 May, and passage on 7 May. This is the meeting at which the town's mayor is first written 'D. Trimper Jr.' in the 1946 book.

    The engineer of the 1946 zoning map is printed CLARKE GARDNER on the map and written 'Clark Gordon' by the clerk four days earlier - almost certainly the Clark Gardner who had been Ocean City's consulting engineer since 1935.

    Staton, Whaley & PriceJohn B. LynchCranford O. SavageRudolph DolleClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

29. 1946 · 1946-05-07

    Ocean City passed its first zoning ordinance 3-0 on the evening of 7 May 1946, and it was in force that night.

    The Mayor and City Council met in regular monthly session at 7:30 P.M. with the whole board present - Mayor Daniel Trimper Jr., Councilmen John B. Lynch, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage, and John M. Mumford, City Clerk. The President of the City Council laid before the council the form of The Zoning Ordinance of Ocean City, Maryland, 'as recommended by the Zoning Commission and revised following public advertised hearings before the Mayor and City Council and numerous sessions of the Mayor and City Council to consider suggestions and objections adduced at said hearings and at the hearings held by the Zoning Commission.' On motion by Councilman Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Councilman Crawford O. Savage, it was unanimously passed as Ordinance No. 99. Section II provides that the ordinance 'shall take effect from the date of its passage' - no delay, no publication period, no referendum. Trimper approved it the same day. The whole of the 39 manuscript pages and the map that follow are the ordinance; the clerk records no other motion, no correspondence, no bills and no adjournment. Dolle - who cast the lone dissenting vote on the bus terminal in February 1945 - moved it, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionRudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

30. 1946 · 1946-08-05

    Ocean City returned its whole government at a four-hour poll in the fire house on 5 August 1946: Trimper beat Robert Lee Cropper 344 to 135, and the three sitting councilmen all beat the only challenger.

    'An election was held in the Engine room of Fire House on Monday August 5, 1946 for purpose of electing one person for Mayor and three persons for City Councilmen.' The polls opened at two and closed at six, kept by Election Judges Joseph Elliott, Horace H. Richardson and Chas. T. Jackson with J. M. Mumford as clerk, and 494 votes were cast. For Mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 344, Robert Lee Cropper 135. For City Council: Rudolph Dolle 403, Cranford D. Savage 341, John B. Lynch 335, John Sacca 165. The returns were properly made to the City Clerk and Trimper, Dolle, Lynch and Savage were declared duly elected for a two-year term to take office on 9 September 1946. It was held on a Monday in the first week of August, at the height of the season, in the engine room.

    The clerk recorded 494 votes cast and a mayoral tally that adds to 479 - the two figures in the same return do not close.

    Robert Lee CropperRudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchCharles T. JacksonJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

31. 1946 · 1946-08-19

    Ocean City ordered every slot machine and gambling device out of the town in August 1946, went on to study banning bingo, and was met with a threat of injunction from a casino operator - and none of it is in the minute book.

    An Associated Press dispatch datelined Ocean City, Md., 20 August 1946 reports that Mayor Daniel Trimper met with members of the City Council the previous day to discuss the possibility of closing all bingo games, 'even those which offer merchandise instead of cash as prizes'. Action was deferred because the council's legal advisers were absent. 'The meeting follows Saturday's action of the Council in ordering the removal of all slot machines and other gambling devices. Alexander W. Jackson, operator of a casino, announced he will file injunction proceedings in the Worcester County Circuit Court seeking' - the snippet breaks there. It is the largest single piece of 1946 Ocean City business the town's own published record does not contain: the calendar carries no meeting between 5 and 27 August, the council's own list of minutes approved on 9 September names only one, and nothing about slot machines, bingo, gambling or an injunction appears anywhere in the 88 pages read.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

32. 1946 · 1946-08-27

    Twenty-two days after being re-elected, the President of the Ocean City Council laid a note on the table resigning both his remaining term and his new one, and walked out of a meeting that had never been called to order.

    The council met at eight on the evening of 27 August with Mayor Trimper, Lynch and Dolle present and Savage absent. While they waited for Savage, Robert Lee Cropper came in as President of the Chamber of Commerce and discussed the winter operating of the Chamber: he wanted to keep a girl on part time all winter to answer correspondence and wanted the City to put up the money for it, and he wanted to put on one or more exhibits in Washington or Boston at about $500 each. 'Nothing definite was promised on this.' Then, in the clerk's words: 'The meeting was not called to order or any minutes read when John B. Lynch said he wanted the attention of the Mayor & Council, and at that time laid on the table a note saying he was resigning as a member of Council both for the remaining term and the newly elected term. The members were taken by surprise at this and Mr. Lynch left the room, with Mayor Trimper and Dolle following soon thereafter, at about 9:15 o'clock.' Lynch had been President of the Council, had signed Ordinance No. 99 in that capacity three months earlier, and had polled 335 votes on 5 August. No reason is recorded and the note is not copied into the book. The seat was still empty at the last meeting of the year.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceJohn B. LynchRudolph DolleRobert Lee Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

33. 1946 · 1946-09-09

    Ocean City's council approved the minutes of a meeting in August 1946 that does not exist in the town's own online record - and a wire report describes two more August sittings that are equally absent.

    The minute of 9 September 1946 opens: 'Minutes of Aug. 5, Aug 10th & August 27th were read and approved.' The 5 August entry is the election return and the 27 August entry is Lynch's resignation. The middle meeting has no entry in the IQM2 calendar for 1946 and no document. Separately, an Associated Press dispatch datelined Ocean City on 20 August reports that Mayor Trimper met with members of the City Council 'yesterday' - Monday 19 August - to discuss closing the town's bingo games, and that the meeting followed 'Saturday's action of the Council in ordering the removal of all slot machines and other gambling devices', which puts a further sitting on Saturday 17 August. Neither of those dates is in the calendar or in the list of minutes the council approved. The 1946 record as published therefore omits at least one meeting the council itself acknowledged, and at least two more that a wire service reported.

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

34. 1946 · 1946-09-09

    Ocean City organised its new government on 9 September 1946 two councilmen strong, made Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford Savage Secretary-Treasurer, and hired the lawyer who had written its zoning ordinance as City Attorney.

    Judge Jones Robins was called in and swore in Daniel Trimper as Mayor for a two-year term and R. Dolle and C. D. Savage as councilmen for two years; Lynch's seat stayed empty. The council elected Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford D. Savage Secretary and Treasurer, appointed Joe Savage Police Chief, and appointed John S. Whaley City Attorney - the Snow Hill partner who had cited the deeds in the boundary fight in April and rewritten an ordinance in May. The same meeting was told that the busses had quit and ordered the secretary to write Mr. Colonell asking why he quit before 1 October, and decided to have Geo. Bert Cropper present at the next meeting to settle about the price for charging for permits. It also read and approved the minutes of 'Aug. 5, Aug 10th & August 27th'.

    Rudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJohn S. WhaleyG. Bertrand Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

35. 1946 · 1946-10-01

    Ocean City's first Board of Zoning Appeals was confirmed on 1 October 1946 with the man who had chaired the Zoning Commission as its chairman - and one seat already changed hands before the board was ever listed.

    'The appointment of Mr. James Farlow to take place of Mr. Harland Huston on Zoning Appeal Board for one year was approved', and the clerk then set the board out in full: James Farlow, one year; Walter H. Jarman, one year; Dr. C. W. Purnell, two years; Franklin Waller, three years; John P. Whaley, four years. Mayor Trimper named Waller chairman. Ordinance No. 99 required exactly this - five members, staggered two/one/one/one at one, two, three and four years, one designated chairman by the Mayor - and the council's instinct on 21 May had been simply 'to ask the same members to serve that were on the Zoning Board'. It substantially did: Waller chaired the Zoning Commission organised in May 1945 and Purnell was its secretary, so the men who wrote the ordinance now sat on the board that heard appeals from it. The substitution was made before the meeting: on the lawyers' draft of 4 May, 'Harland Houston' is struck through in manuscript with 'James Farlow' written above it, and the two-year seat there reads 'John W. Purnell'.

    Ocean City Board of Zoning AppealsOcean City Zoning CommissionFrank WallerDr. Charles Washington PurnellJohn P. Whaley

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

36. 1951

    Ten blocks annexed during Mayor Trimper's term; parking meters and paved streets reach the resort.

    The same March 1951 Evening Star feature recorded the shape of the growing town: hotels lined "a greater part of the 2-mile boardwalk," visitors found "well-paved roads and even modern parking meters," and "ten blocks have been incorporated into the town during Mayor Trimper's term" (i.e., since 1944). Daniel Trimper, Jr. — a resident for 57 years and mayor for six — liked to tell that when he arrived at age 8 there were no street lights and only one hotel.

    Ocean City Boardwalk

    Source · checked 2026-08-05

37. 1951 · 1951-07-10

    Mayor Trimper, a beer distributor, resigns from the county Liquor Control Board under Republican pressure.

    Gov. Theodore McKeldin announced on July 10, 1951 that Mayor Daniel W. Trimper, Jr. of Ocean City had resigned from the Worcester County Liquor Control Board. Trimper, a Democrat, had been under pressure from the Republican State Central Committee of Worcester County, which claimed he held the board job contrary to a law prohibiting members from engaging in the liquor business — Trimper was a beer distributor. McKeldin appointed William H. Scott, a Republican attorney from Ocean City, to serve out the term expiring in 1955.

    Worcester County Liquor Control Board

    Source · checked 2026-08-05