David Moore
first chief of the 1905 Ocean City volunteer fire brigade · active 1905
A summer visitor from Washington, D.C., staying at the Atlantic Hotel, who in July 1905 organised a 32-man volunteer fire brigade at Ocean City, was elected its chief, bought a small engine, put the company in uniform for its first drill, and proposed to establish three stations along the boardwalk. Days later he was one of three men who pulled the Atlantic Hotel manager's son out of the surf. Nothing is known of him beyond the summer of 1905, and his brigade is very probably the source of the widely repeated 1905 founding date for the Ocean City fire company — which the county paper shows was first organised in February 1903.
In the record (2)
1905 · 1905-07-26
August Roder, Jr., son of the Atlantic Hotel's manager, is pulled from the surf in front of the Atlantic Casino by three men including "Mr. Robert Purnell, the life guard."
"August Roder, Jr., son of Mr. August Roder, of Baltimore, manager of the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, last week, while bathing in front of the Atlantic Casino Wednesday, got beyond his depth and was nearly drowned. Mr. Thomas Purnell, Mr. Robert Purnell, the life guard, and Mr. David Moore, who happened to be near at hand, plunged in and bravely saved the exhausted lad." The phrase "the life guard," used as a settled job title, is the earliest documentation the campaign has of a paid or designated beach life guard at Ocean City — twenty-five years before the Ocean City Beach Patrol was founded in 1930. David Moore is the same Washington visitor who organised the fire brigade three days earlier.
Ocean City Beach PatrolRobert PurnellAugust Roder
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1905 · 1905-07-29
A Washington summer visitor, David Moore, organises a 32-man volunteer fire brigade at Ocean City with uniforms, a small engine and three stations along the boardwalk — the event behind the modern "1905" founding date.
"A volunteer fire brigade has been organized at Ocean City by Mr. David Moore, of Washington, now staying at the Atlantic Hotel. Mr. Moore has been elected chief. Mr. Moore says he will establish three stations along the boardwalk. Last Wednesday the company, which has 32 enrolled volunteers, gave its first drill in their new uniforms and with the small engine which has recently been purchased. Last week a small fire on the lower boardwalk was effectively extinguished by the brigade with buckets." Ocean City had already organised a volunteer fire department in February 1903 under Chief Harry C. Ludlam; the 1905 brigade is a re-founding on a larger and better-equipped footing, and is very probably the origin of the widely repeated 1905 date for the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company.
Modern accounts date the Ocean City fire company to 1905. The 1903 pass found it organised in February 1903. Both are right about something: 1903 is when it was formed, 1905 is when it got uniforms, an engine, three stations and a fire it actually put out.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentHarry C. Ludlam
Source · checked 2026-08-06