Maj. George D. De Shields

In the record (3)

1. 1899

   In 1899 two railroads were selling Ocean City, Maryland, to the Ohio Valley and the Alleghenies — the B&O out of Wheeling at $10 the round trip, the Pennsylvania out of Pittsburgh — and the Wheeling papers carried the resort on 162 pages of the 205 that mention it.

   "The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad have arranged a series of popular seashore excursions, to be run Thursdays, July 13 and 27, August 10 and 24, to Atlantic City, Cape May, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, N. J., and Ocean City, Md. Tickets will be good fifteen (15) days, including day of sale. Stop overs will be allowed on return trip at Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington on tickets sold to New Jersey resorts, and at Baltimore and Washington on tickets sold to Ocean City, Md." From Wheeling the round trip was $10.00; from Charles Town, $5.00. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran its own competing series on Thursdays 6 and 20 July and 3 and 17 August, out of Pittsburgh by special train of Pullman parlor cars at 8.55 in the morning, to the same New Jersey list plus "Rehoboth, Del., or Ocean City, Md.", with connections advertised in the Valley of Virginia via the Norfolk & Western. And through the same summer the Atlantic Hotel took display advertising in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer — "Open June 21. Accommodations for 350. Directly on the beach… apply to Geo. D. De Shields, Mgr. Dewey Hotel, or Jno. F. Waggaman, 700 14th St., Washington, D. C." — running beside the Deer Park Hotel's, as an alternative to the mountains.

   The campaign has treated West Virginia and Pennsylvania as corpora full of the wrong Ocean City. In 1899 they are not: 162 of the 205 West Virginia pages that mention any Ocean City name Ocean City, MARYLAND, because two trunk railroads were selling this beach four hundred miles inland and the man who owned the beach was buying space in Wheeling to help them.

   Atlantic HotelPennsylvania Railroad CompanyJohn F. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1899 · 1899-08-09

   Charles Alfred Bliss of Washington drowns in front of the Ocean City life-saving station on 9 August 1899 while four other bathers are pulled out alive — and his father tells the newspapers the patrol was not satisfactory.

   At half past twelve on Wednesday 9 August 1899, Charles Alfred Bliss — twenty-seven, cashier of the Washington agency of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, son of Alfred G. Bliss, chief clerk of the Bureau of Internal Revenue — was caught in an eddy beyond the breakers at Ocean City and carried out. He had come down the previous Saturday for a fortnight with Dr. W. M. Newell, and two days earlier had written home that he had sailed that day over the spot where the Birney boys drowned. "Mr. Bell, of the life-saving crew, heard Mr. Bliss cry for help and ran to the station to get out a boat. While the life-saving men were making ready, several other bathers who were beyond their depth became exhausted and began to cry for help" — the Misses Bessie and Alice Hunting and Miss Geeting of Baltimore, and Dr. Newell. Sidney Wilson of Snow Hill, a youth of fifteen, went into the breakers and brought Bessie Hunting ashore. His shouting turned the crowd to Alice, and the Rev. Francis Y. Nichols of Princeton dived for her, held her up, and got her in with Charles R. Gantz of Baltimore and a Mr. Strauss; it took some time to resuscitate her. The Misses Hunting were rescued in front of Mount Pleasant Cottage. A hundred yards below, in front of the life-saving station, Raleigh DeShields — son of Major De Shields of the Atlantic Hotel, and himself a boy — held the exhausted Dr. Newell up, taking a badly scratched shoulder and neck for it, until Sid Wilson reached them and the lifeboat, just launched, took all three off. DeShields then pulled Miss Geeting out. As the lifeboat crossed the first breaker looking for Bliss, Bob Purnell of Ocean City and Charles Gantz saw the body, dived from the boat and brought it up. It had been in the water about an hour; four doctors failed to revive it, and it was laid in a room of the life-saving station and embalmed there by Undertaker J. E. Wise of Berlin. Bliss was buried from his parents' house at 928 East Capitol Street on 11 August and interred in Congressional Cemetery. His father did not let it go: "Mr. A. G. Bliss, father of the drowned man, today said it appeared strange that the life-saving service at Ocean City was so long in rendering assistance. It did not appear to him that the patrol of the beach at Ocean City was satisfactory, otherwise he did not think an hour would have been consumed in the rescue of his boy." Alfred G. Bliss died four months later, on 9 December 1899; both Washington papers said his health had declined steadily from the day his son drowned at Ocean City.

   The strongest thing ever said against the Ocean City life-saving station in the nineteenth century was said by a Treasury official whose son had just died in front of it, and it was printed in the capital's evening paper. Thirty-one years before the Beach Patrol, the surf in front of the hotels was being worked by a fifteen-year-old and a hotel manager's son.

   Ocean City Life-Saving Station MuseumAtlantic HotelUnited States Life-Saving ServiceSidney WilsonCharles Alfred Bliss

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1900

   Board at the Dennis House costs $6 to $8 a week, and a Washington man builds a new hotel on the board walk.

   The Evening Star's summer-resort columns and the town's own correspondents give the fullest hotel roster this project holds for the turn of the century. The Atlantic Hotel opened Saturday 23 June, "thoroughly refurnished and refitted, private baths attached," rates from Geo. D. De Shields at 700 14th St NW, Washington — John F. Waggaman's address of the year before, and Waggaman himself was abroad for much of the summer. The Plimhimmon Hotel and Casino opened 9 June "greatly enlarged": ocean front, dining room capacity 200, "orchestra and ball room; surf bathing, sailing, fishing, gunning, etc.; bath houses connected with hotel; bowling alleys, pool tables, etc.; Chattolanee spring water served," over Mrs. R. T. Shreve's name, with a large ocean-front dining room added as an annex that spring. The one house that printed a price was the Dennis House, Mrs. R. J. Dennis: "Unobstructed view of ocean and bay; excellent table. Terms, $6 to $8 per week. Also furnished cottage for rent." Also advertising: the Seaside Hotel (Mrs. A. B. Showell, proprietor; John L. Streeper, manager), Ocean Swell Cottage (J. D. Showell, open from 1 May, "one of the best places at Ocean City, Md., to have a royal good time"), the Colonial (W. J. Warrington), Sutton Lodge (Mrs. M. K. Michael), Tarry Awhile Cottage (Mrs. Mason), and Neptune Villa, advertised in the Washington Times as "direct on sea ... fruits, vegetables, butter and milk from Eastern Shore. Terms moderate. Address Manager, Box 45." John F. Waggaman advertised the town itself over his own name in the Evening Star through June — "Spend the summer in the cool breezes at Ocean City, Md. Directly on the Atlantic. Always cool ... splendid bathing, fishing and boating. Living is remarkably cheap" — with furnished cottages for rent, cottages and lots for sale and "money loaned to build." Congress Hall, the Gordon and the Ocean Wave appear in the Black correspondence. And new for the season: "Mr. W. E. Buell of Washington has erected a large hotel on the board walks near the United States life saving station, to be known as the Mt. Pleasant" — opening 20 June, "directly on the beach; comfortable rooms, wide verandas, ocean front, dining room, sun parlor, bath rooms" — one of "as many as a dozen smaller buildings ... built this spring." By late July it was "thinking about putting out the 'standing room only' sign."

   Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkRosalie Tilghman ShreveJohn F. WaggamanWilliam Warrington

   Source · checked 2026-08-06