History

F. W. Truitt

president, Ocean City Board of Trade · active 1927

President of the Ocean City Board of Trade in 1927, in which capacity he attended the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association's Resorts Commission with Mayor W. W. McCabe, Charles Ludlum of the Hastings Hotel and Dr. C. W. Purnell of the Atlantic. His presidency is the campaign's evidence that the Board of Trade still existed under that name in 1927 and that Dr. Purnell, its president in 1925, had handed it on — Purnell attends the 1927 meeting as a hotel proprietor. No first name is printed in any source found. — 1935 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1935 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11. A second, later attestation, and a different office. The registry has him only as president of the Ocean City Board of Trade in 1927, with no first name in any source. On 31 October 1935 an 'F. W. Truitt' signed as NOTARY PUBLIC the oath of the three judges appointed to conduct Ocean City's special bond election of 1 November — Edwin P. Calhoun, Horace H. Richardson and Stephen J. Quillen — certifying that all three were personally known to him. The identification with the Board of Trade president rests on an uncommon initial-pair and surname in a small town eight years apart and IS NOT PROVEN; it should be recorded as probable, not certain. Still no first name. SEPARATELY, and probably a different man: the Salisbury Times of 16 December 1935 names a 'Frank Truitt, Treasurer and Cashier of the Ocean City Bank' reporting to the first meeting of the Ocean City Yacht Club — which would give a first name if the two are the same, but the campaign has no evidence that they are. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: still an active figure thirty years after the Board of Trade presidency. On 19 March 1937 'F. W. Truitt' headed the list of the Ocean City Yacht Club delegation that came before the council asking for Fourteenth Street to be improved. On 30 April 'F. W. Truitt spoke opposing the restaurant, on behalf of Wheatton & Barton Property' at the hearing on John Lambros's building permit. On 23 March 1937 the Salisbury Times reports him elected vice-president of a new Ocean City roads and bridge association under Dr. C. W. Purnell, and in October he went to the Ocean City Day dinner in Baltimore as one of the Ocean City Yacht Club's three delegates, with Rev. E. C. Hallman and Daniel Trimper 3rd.

In the record (7)

  1. 1927

    Ocean City joins a peninsula-wide resorts bureau, and its Board of Trade has a new president.

    A Resorts Commission of the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association, called by chairman State Senator Louis A. Drexler of Delaware, met in early February 1927 and again at The Dennis, Ocean City, on Tuesday 29 March 1927, "for the purpose of taking immediate action on the permanent organization of a Resorts Bureau, to operate in conjunction with the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association; for the outlining of a cooperative advertising program and to consult with a sub-committee of the Transportation and Communication Division regarding the securing of better railroad transportation to resorts." Twenty-five representative resort men attended. Ocean City's delegation was Mayor W. W. McCabe; F. W. Truitt, president of the Board of Trade; Chas. Ludlum of the Hastings Hotel; and Dr. C. W. Purnell of the Atlantic Hotel. The transportation asks, put to former Senator E. Dale Adkins, chairman of the Transportation Committee, were week-end excursion fares Friday to Monday to both Ocean City and Rehoboth; special week-end trains from Philadelphia and Baltimore from 1 July to 15 September; and ten- to seventeen-day excursion fares from the Pittsburgh territory to Rehoboth and Ocean City, with Pullman cars running through.

    Two things fall out of a routine trade-body notice. The Board of Trade still exists under that name in 1927 and its president is no longer Dr. Purnell but F. W. Truitt — Purnell attends as a hotelier, not as the town's spokesman. And the town's growth strategy in 1927 was not local at all: it was a peninsula-wide advertising co-operative asking the Pennsylvania for a Pullman from Pittsburgh.

    Board of Trade of Ocean CityDel-Mar-Va Eastern Shore AssociationPennsylvania Railroad CompanyWilliam W. McCabeDr. Charles Washington PurnellLouis A. Drexler

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1935 · 1935-11-01

    Ocean City voted 104 to 1 for a sewer

    The special election was held at the Fire House on Friday 1 November 1935, polls 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., before three judges the mayor had appointed two days earlier under Section 138 of Article 24 of the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland (1930): Edwin P. Calhoun, Horace H. Richardson and Stephen J. Quillen, who swore their oath before the notary F. W. Truitt on 31 October. The judges certified the result to the Clerk, and the certificate is recited in the bond resolution of the following afternoon: “at said election 104 votes were cast ‘For Sewerage Bonds’, and 1 votes were cast ‘Against Sewerage Bonds’.” The Salisbury Times carried it in a one-paragraph state brief on 2 November. One hundred and five ballots settled how the whole town would dispose of its waste for the next forty years — and one person voted against. One thing the resolution does not say out loud, and it changes the number: by Chapter 45 of the Acts of 1935, approved that April, an Ocean City voter had for a year to have been “assessed on the tax books of said town with, and ... the owner of, real or personal property of the value of at least one hundred dollars.” The bond resolution extended the franchise to exactly that electorate. The 104 were property owners voting to tax their own property.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  3. 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 ClubJohn B. LynchCecil BlakeDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.C. Parker Smith

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  4. 1937 · 1937-05-03

    Three meetings, a public hearing and a 2-1 vote: how John Lambros got permission to put fourteen apartments and a soda fountain on Atlantic Avenue

    On 15 April 1937 Councilman Scott moved 'that Permission be granted John Lambros to drive piling for a building 45 X 96 on Lot #9 Block #5 North', the building to be kept back of the present Atlantic Avenue building and porch lines, 'it being understood that the building to be erected is not yet Approved for lack of Sufficient information Nor are the purposes for which the building is to be used approved.' Townsend and Scott voted aye, Laws no. On 26 April the council set a hearing for Friday evening and the secretary notified the neighbours by name - the Shoreham Hotel, Percy Hickling, R. E. and Bertha Rouse, Chas. Seybold, Dale Showell, Mrs. Fooks, Elsie Seeger Barton, Fred Wolf for the Wheatton estate, L. E. Neal Jr. and Hattie Cropper. At the hearing on 30 April, Frank W. Truitt 'spoke opposing the restaurant, on behalf of Wheatton & Barton Property'; Mrs. H. J. Cropper spoke for granting the permit; letters against came from L. E. Neal Jr. and R. E. Rouse. A new application was then filed 'stating That Building was for 2 upper floors for 14 Apartments lower floor for Restaurant Soda Fountain, novelty store, notions & Confections are only business to be operated on the premises.' On 3 May the permit was granted, Scott and Townsend yes, Laws no. Two months later Lambros was assessed $8,000 on personal property, the largest such figure on the 1937 book.

    The Shoreham Hotel / Shenanigan's Irish PubJohn LambrosWilliam H. ScottFrancis J. TownsendW. Preston LawsHarry J. Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  5. 1938 · 1938-05-10

    Ordinance No. 100 forbade cesspools and privies anywhere in Ocean City, and the town went after the shanties first

    The sewer was accepted in 1937. In 1938 it became compulsory. On 10 May 1938 'Ordinance #100 was unanimously passed forbidding use of Cesspools and Privys in corporate limits of Ocean City and Secretary instructed to notify owners of land where shanties were that they must connect to sewer.' The push had come from the state. On 4 April Dr. Wallace Spring of the Board of Health had appeared and 'recommended the Passing of an Ordinance Compelling all dwelling places Especially shanties to Connect to sewer and have flush toilets with water under pressure', described 'unsanitary conditions existing along bay Shore' and suggested 'place be provided in West Ocean City for shanties & trailers with proper sanitary facilities'. On 12 April he came back 'in interest of Ordinance compelling the Elimination of Outdoor toilets and taken Copy of Ordinance for their Engineers to study before passage'; at the same meeting F. W. Truitt told the council he would cooperate in removing shanties from his lots.

    A town that had argued for a decade about whether to build a sewer spent 1938 discovering the other half of the bargain: once you own the pipe, you have the power to make people join it - and the first people made to join were the ones living in shanties on the bay shore.

    Maryland State Board of HealthDr. Wallace SpringFrancis J. Townsend

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  6. 1938 · 1938-11-22

    Ocean City was twice asked to buy the Yacht Club Island in 1938 and twice said it could not - the second time to keep it out of 'undesirable Hands'

    On 10 May 1938 'John B Lynch & F. W. Truitt were before Council asking for advice on what to do about the Yacht Club Island and Council heard their story & decided they could not help.' On 10 November Truitt came back: he 'asked the Council if the city did not want to buy the Yacht Club Island as the present owners could not carry on much longer and thought the City should own the Island and keep it out of undesirable Hands. The Council promised to think it over.' Twelve days later, on 22 November, 'The Purchase of Yacht Club Island was next disposed of by refusing owing to the City's finances.' The Ocean City Yacht Club had been founded in 1928 and in March 1937 eleven of its members had come to the same council asking for Fourteenth Street to be graded. — 1939 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE 1938 PASS'S OPEN QUESTION IS HALF ANSWERED, AND THE ANSWER IS THE TAX BOOKS. In 1938 the council was asked about the Yacht Club Island three times and declined three times - it 'could not help' in May, 'promised to think it over' in November, and on 22 November disposed of the purchase 'by refusing owing to the City's finances'. On 24 March 1939 a delegation including John Lynch, John D. Ayer and Frank Truitt asked for an extension of sewer and water to the island, and on 31 March the council resolved that 'if they wanted sewer & water City would run sewer & water to East Side Chicago Ave, they to connect there and put them on tax books for $15,000 assessment. Carried.' The new-assessment list of 21 June then carries 'Yacht Club 12000'. So the town's interest was rateable value, and it named its price the moment one was available. STILL NOT ESTABLISHED, and still the live question: WHERE the Yacht Club Island was, who owned it, and what the 1938 council meant by keeping it 'out of undesirable Hands'.

    Ocean City Yacht ClubJohn B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  7. 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. TownsendArchie DavisL. B. CropperRobert AllenJ. M. MumfordDaniel Trimper, Sr.W. Preston LawsEdward M. ScottWilliam H. Purnell

    Source · checked 2026-08-11