Ephraim King Wilson II
lawyer, railroad promoter, congressman from Snow Hill · active 1869–1891
Worcester County lawyer of Snow Hill. Named by the Cecil Whig in February 1869 as president of the Worcester Railroad — the projected Snow Hill-to-Berlin line that opened in 1872 and made Berlin the rail town nearest the future Ocean City beach — and elected to the U.S. House from Maryland's First (Eastern Shore) District in November 1872 by a majority of 638 over Thomas A. Spence. He is the Worcester County member of the congressional delegation that Maryland's 1872 joint resolution on a Sinepuxent inlet was directed at, and later served in the U.S. Senate.
In the record (8)
1869
Worcester County men organize the Snow Hill–Berlin railroad: a treasurer, a right-of-way committee, and E. K. Wilson in the president's chair.
The Cecil Whig of February 6, 1869 reported that "the Worcester Railroad, to connect Snow Hill and Berlin together, is in fair way to be built. At a meeting held in Snow Hill on the 19th instant, a treasurer was appointed, as also a committee to secure the right of way. E. K. Wilson, Esq., is President of the road." Money came slower than enthusiasm: by March 25 the Delaware Tribune's Worcester County column noted that "stockholders in the Worcester Railroad [are] not paying in their instalments very rapidly." The line opened Berlin to Snow Hill in 1872, giving the county seat a rail connection through the town that would become Ocean City's mainland gateway.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1872
Col. Ephraim K. Wilson of Snow Hill carries Maryland's First District by 638 votes in November 1872 — Worcester County sends its own man to Congress.
In the general election of November 5, 1872 Col. Ephraim King Wilson II of Snow Hill, Worcester County, was elected to the U.S. House from Maryland's First (Eastern Shore) District, beating Thomas A. Spence by a majority of 638, as reported in the peninsula column of the Wilmington Daily Gazette on November 20. The Salisbury brass band went down to Snow Hill to serenade the congressman-elect. Wilson took his seat in the 43rd Congress in 1873 — the delegation the previous spring's inlet resolution had asked the Governor to write to.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1875 · 1875-08-31
August 31, 1875: a blindfolded boy pulls names from a hat and Ocean City's first 111 lots are handed out to the Atlantic Hotel Company's stockholders.
On Tuesday, August 31, 1875, excursion trains brought about two hundred people over to Ocean City and the directors of the Atlantic Hotel Company arranged the drawing for lots. "It was decided that each stockholder was entitled to a lot, those having the greater number of shares having the first choice. The names of each stockholder having an equal amount of stock were put into the hat at a time, and the names drawn out by a boy who was blindfolded." Hon. James U. Dennis's name came out first; he was absent, and his brother U. S. Senator George R. Dennis chose Lot No. 11 for him. Hon. William T. Hamilton's name came next, and Col. Lemuel Showell chose Lot No. 10 for him. Subscribers were sorted into nine classes by the size of their holding — $500 down to $50 — and among them were Governor W. Pinkney Whyte, Comptroller Levin Woolford, E. K. Wilson, E. E. Jackson & Co., Harrison Bro., the Barnum's Hotel Co. of Baltimore, and Wilmington's Wm. Lea & Sons. "One hundred and eleven lots in all" were taken. Afterwards the Wicomico & Pocomoke directors held a meeting, the Salisbury Brass Band played, and the day "wound up by a grand hop at night."
Ocean City's first property transfer was a raffle. The lots weren't sold to the public — they were dealt out to the men who had subscribed the hotel, in order of how much they'd put in.
Atlantic Hotel CompanyWicomico and Pocomoke RailroadGeorge R. DennisWilliam T. HamiltonCol. Lemuel ShowellLevin Woolford
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1881
Ocean City's cottage colony in 1881: Myers' Cottage repainted and unlet, Hersemas's cottage taken by Congressman E. K. Wilson's family, and a Washington man advertising to rent or buy one.
The Messenger's 18 June survey: "Myers' Cottage is being repainted and otherwise improved. It has not yet been rented. Mr. Hersemas's cosy cottage will be occupied by the family of Hon. E. K. Wilson." In July the paper noted that "Hon. E. K. Wilson and family are domiciled in their cottage at Ocean City." Demand ran ahead of supply: through May the Messenger carried a classified from Washington — "WANTED. To rent, a Cottage at Ocean City, Md., for the months of July, August and September. Would prefer to purchase, if prices and terms are satisfactory. Address, with particulars, W. H. Babcock, Box 220, Washington, D.C." — and in August the well-driller was told that the fresh-water problem was what had "hitherto deferred" people from erecting cottages on their lots.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1885 · 1885-08-13
Ocean City hosts a judicial nominating convention that ballots 134 times in two days and nominates nobody.
On Thursday, August 13, 1885 the Democratic convention of Maryland's First Judicial Circuit — Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester, four delegates each — met at noon in the Atlantic Pavilion at Ocean City to nominate a candidate for associate judge. The vacancy existed because Judge Charles F. Holland had been appointed by Gov. McLane to fill the seat left by Ephraim K. Wilson's election to the United States Senate. Elihu E. Jackson of Salisbury called the meeting to order; Samuel W. Woolford of Dorchester was president and Oliver D. Collins of Worcester secretary. It deadlocked instantly and never moved: Dorchester and Wicomico voted eight for Holland, Worcester and Somerset eight for George W. Purnell of Snow Hill, ballot after ballot. The convention sat through Friday the 14th, adjourned to 9 p.m., took one more futile ballot and gave up, adjourning to Cambridge on September 2 — where, after eleven more ballots, Worcester's delegates went over and Holland was nominated. Salisbury and Snow Hill partisans came down by train to watch.
The first documented political convention held in Ocean City ran for two days, cast well over a hundred ballots, produced no candidate at all, and moved to Cambridge. The town got the trade regardless.
Atlantic HotelGeorge W. Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1889
The governor and the senior U.S. senator summer at the Atlantic in the same July — "regarding each other with a jealous eye."
The Messenger's "Ocean City News" of July 13, 1889 listed the Atlantic's register and then read it politically: "Ocean City will no doubt regain its prestige as the political mecca of the state of Maryland, as Senator Wilson and Gov. Jackson are already on the ground, and regarding each other with a jealous eye, as both are aspirants for U.S. Senate; at least Senator Wilson wishes to succeed himself, and it is pretty well settled that Governor Jackson will work for it... Other well-known politicians here are Gen. Seth, Senators Toadvin, Bratten, and Lindsey, ex-Speaker Upshur, and others, and no doubt several little schemes will be hatched out before the season closes." Ephraim K. Wilson took a cottage for the summer with George M. Upshur and "returned to his family at Ocean City" from Snow Hill in late July; by August he was telling the paper that "Ocean City agrees with him better than Bedford Springs."
The sandbar had been called the political centre of the peninsula since 1880. In 1889 the sitting governor and the sitting senator booked into the same hotel and spent August watching each other across the dining room.
Atlantic HotelElihu Emory Jackson
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1890 · 1890-07-17
The Governor of Maryland and a sitting U.S. Senator both fall ill at the Atlantic Hotel, and the Governor is carried off the beach by steamer.
'Gov. E. E. Jackson and family, Judge C. F. Holland and State Senator F. S. Toadvin are at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Md.,' the Evening Capital reported on July 15, 1890 — the Governor of Maryland, the judge who had just bought the hotel at auction, and the Wicomico senator whose name would go before the district convention two months later, all under one roof. It did not go well. On July 18 the paper reported that Jackson had been taken 'to Salisbury yesterday on the steamer McLane. His condition began to improve almost as soon as he started on the water. When the steamer arrived at Salisbury the Governor was driven at once to his home, whither Mrs. Jackson was summoned by telegraph from Ocean City.' A week later: 'Gov. Jackson, who has been confined to his room in the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, is much better... Governor Jackson and Senator Wilson are reported to be somewhat unwell at Ocean City, though both are improving.' The Delaware Gazette's Ocean City letter of July 31 found the sick list a roll-call of the Eastern Shore bench and bar: Judge L. T. Irving of Princess Anne, Judge Holland of Salisbury, Judge Goldsborough of Cambridge, Col. Thomas Hughlett of Talbot, L. E. P. Dennis, collector of customs at Crisfield, and George W. Covington, all 'being greatly helped by the salt air.' Senator Ephraim K. Wilson II, of Snow Hill, did not recover for long; he died in office on February 24, 1891.
In 1890 the salt air was still sold as medicine — and the Governor of Maryland was the patient.
Atlantic HotelElihu Emory JacksonJudge Charles F. HollandGeorge W. Covington
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1897
William Sidney Wilson, Ocean City's first mayor, shoots himself at his home in Snow Hill in November 1897, aged 45.
The Wilmington Evening Journal of Nov 16, 1897 ran it across two decks — "Ex-Mayor Wilson of Ocean City Takes His Life. SHOT HIMSELF AND DIED INSTANTLY" — over a dispatch datelined Snow Hill, Md.: "William Sidney Wilson committed suicide at his home, in Snow Hill, by shooting himself with a revolver. For some time he had been in bad health and is supposed to have taken his life while suffering under temporary aberration of mind. He died instantly after firing the shot." The obituary that follows is the fullest account of him this campaign has found: eldest son of the late United States Senator Ephraim King Wilson of Worcester; 45 years old; graduate of St. John's College, Annapolis; read law under his father; elected to the House of Delegates in 1877 and State's Attorney of Worcester in 1883, an office he held by re-election until he resigned in 1891; senior partner of Wilson & Collins; a director of the First National Bank of Snow Hill and, with O. D. Collins, owner of the Boatman's Bank of Chincoteague, Va.; a member of the Maryland Club, Baltimore. "He was prominent in the development of Ocean City, served as its mayor for some years and owned much property there, as well as in other parts of Worcester." A few weeks before, the paper says, he had been taken sick in Baltimore and lay dangerously ill at the Hotel Rennert; "On Thursday he went to Ocean City on a gunning trip and returned here Saturday night."
The man the 1894 charter made Ocean City's first statutory mayor — and whom the papers had been calling mayor since 1892 — was dead within a year of leaving office, by his own hand, in the county town where every one of Ocean City's early mayors actually lived.
Source · checked 2026-08-06