George M. Upshur

In the record (8)

1. 1896 · 1896-05-04

   Ocean City's first contested election is "a fight between the people of the south end against the members of the Sinepuxent Beach Company" — and the losing ticket is led by Edward Hobbs and Daniel Trimper.

   The dispatch of 4 May 1896 printed in the Democratic Messenger of 9 May gives what the election result alone does not. "There were two tickets in the field and the contest was hot throughout. The opposition ticket was led by Messrs. Edward Hobbs, Daniel Trimper and others, while Messrs. John Waggaman and others looked after the interest of the candidates on the successful ticket. The polls were opened at 11 o'clock and closed at 2." And plainly: "The campaign started some weeks ago and was a fight between what is known as the people of the south end of Ocean City against the members of the Sinepuxent Beach Company." Non-residents who owned property could vote, which "brought a large influx of visitors from all parts of the State as well as from Washington, D. C. These interested parties stood around the polls all day and canvassed for votes for their ticket" — including "Mr. A. Marcus, secretary of the Northern Pacific Railroad," who "came to vote and after casting his ballot left on a special train for New York." The dispatch adds that the majority of the Beach Company's stock was held in Washington, and that its Washington stockholders and lot owners, "disbarred from voting at elections" in the District, "were here in full force today and seemed to enjoy the privilege of casting ballots in a free country." This is the earliest documented factional politics in Ocean City, and it names two men the campaign had placed in the town's government only much later: Edward Hobbs, of the Eastern Shore House, and Daniel Trimper.

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyDaniel Trimper, Sr.John F. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1896 · 1896-09-07

   Ocean City's council organises a Board of Health and appoints two doctors as health commissioners — the first documented act of the town's new government.

   The Ocean City column of 12 September 1896 reports the end of the season and then the council's business: "Considering the large number of people who spent the season here, there has been very little sickness, but notwithstanding this fact, the City Council, at a meeting held last Monday decided to organize a Board of Health, and Dr. C. S. Ames, of Baltimore, and Dr. Paul Jones, of Snow Hill, were appointed health commissioners and will be empowered to enforce strict rules and regulations looking to the preservation of the healthfulness of the place." The meeting fell on Monday 7 September 1896. This is the earliest Ocean City board of health this campaign has found, and — with the water and sewerage plans reported in the same paragraph — the first substantive act recorded of the council elected under George M. Upshur in May [fact:1896-upshur-elected-mayor]. Both appointees were non-residents, as three of the four elected officers had been.

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1898 · 1898-08-01

   At the first election under the new charter, Ocean City elects a resident mayor — postmaster James Z. Powell — in 'a complete victory for home rule' over the non-resident lot owners.

   The Wilmington Evening Journal of 3 August 1898, from a dispatch datelined Ocean City, Md., August 3, under the head 'OCEAN CITY'S RESIDENT MAYOR — ELECTED IN OPPOSITION TO THE WISHES OF NON-RESIDENT PROPERTY OWNERS': 'The first town election under the new charter which was passed by the last Legislature was held in Ocean City Monday. It resulted in a complete victory for home rule. Heretofore the mayor and City Council have been non-residents. The ticket elected is as follows: Mayor — James Z. Powell, of Ocean City. City Council — Cornelius F. Coffin, of Cape Charles City, Va.; David S. Adkins, of Berlin, Md.; and Reverdy J. Dennis, of Ocean City. Some non-resident property owners who were entitled to vote named a ticket composed of non-residents, but withdrew it later in the day, after seeing that the towns people were so thoroughly united, and there was no possible chance of them winning.' The paper adds that George M. Upshur of Baltimore 'refused to be a candidate again'; that the new mayor 'is at present postmaster'; that 'the balloting was done almost entirely by the resident population'; that the newly elected officers assume their functions in September; and — the whole nineteenth-century municipal problem again — 'There is no salary attached to any of the offices.' The Maryland Manual's mayors list independently gives Powell 1898-1900. 'David S. Adkins, of Berlin' is David J. Adkins, the Berlin contractor returned for a third consecutive council; he is the only man to sit on the 1894-96, 1896-98 and 1898-1900 boards.

   In 1896 three of the four men elected to govern Ocean City lived somewhere else, and the county paper ran the headline 'Lot Owners from Far and Near Vote.' Two years later the residents took the town back — and the losing side did not even bother to go to the polls.

   James Z. PowellDavid J. AdkinsReverdy J. DennisCornelius F. Coffin

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1899 · 1899-05-06

   Baltimore money surveys a cut through the beach: John K. Cowen, Alexander Brown and Harry F. Parr pay for an examination of Sinepuxent Bay, and an engineer prices the inlet at $50,000.

   The Democratic Messenger of 6 May 1899, under "TO CUT A CANAL": "Prominent financiers of Baltimore, among the number being John K. Cowen, Harry F. Parr and Alexander Brown are bearing the expense of an examination of the waters of Sinepuxent Bay with a view to cutting a canal through the beach and making the bay salt for the better propagation of oysters. It is claimed that the most available point is at the mouth of the St. Martins river. Major Hutton estimates the cost of digging such an inlet and providing for its permanency will be about $50,000. The enterprise is being conducted under the auspices of the Isle of Wight Oyster Planting Co., of Worcester County, organized in 1883. Hon. George M. Upshur is largely interested." The company's statutory deadline to cut the canal had been extended in 1896 to 31 March 1900; this is the survey it produced with ten months to run. The cut was never made, and the storm of 1933 made one for nothing.

   The inlet was not an accident waiting to happen — it was a business plan, repeatedly costed, and in 1899 it had the president of the B&O behind it.

   Isle of Wight Inlet and Oyster Planting Company of Worcester County

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

5. 1900 · 1900-03-31

   The Isle of Wight Inlet Company's charter to cut a canal through the beach expires on 31 March 1900 while the General Assembly is sitting two days from adjournment — and nobody asks for an extension.

   The end, for a generation, of the campaign's oldest thread. Chapter 371 of the Acts of 1896, approved 4 April 1896, repealed and re-enacted section 15 of Chapter 265 of 1892, the charter of the Isle of Wight Inlet and Oyster Planting Company of Worcester County, in a single sentence: "That all the rights, powers, grants and privileges hereby conveyed and granted are upon the express condition that the above-mentioned canal shall be completed on or before the thirty-first day of March, in the year 1900." The company was still alive in May 1899, when John K. Cowen, Harry F. Parr and Alexander Brown paid for an examination of Sinepuxent Bay and Major Hutton costed the cut at about $50,000. The 1900 General Assembly sat from 3 January to 2 April 1900 — the deadline fell inside the session, two days before adjournment — and did nothing. Searched across the whole of Session Laws volume 97: "Isle of Wight" returns ZERO; "Inlet Company" ZERO; "Oyster Planting Company" ZERO; Sinepuxent and Synepuxent ZERO; "cut a canal" and "through the beach" ZERO. The complete Titles of Laws for the session (pp. 1217-1280, Nos. 2-747) lists no such act and the printed subject index has no INLET or ISLE OF WIGHT heading. The same filter run against volume 475 returns the five 1896 hits, so the zeros are real. The 1902 volume is likewise ZERO. And in the same session that let the inlet charter die, the same legislature chartered the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company: the beach got a pier and a trolley to Fenwick's Island instead of a cut.

   Sixty-four years of asking, and the ask simply stops. No repeal, no debate, no obituary — a condition subsequent runs out on a Saturday while the men who could have moved it are in Annapolis passing a game law about woodcock.

   Isle of Wight Inlet and Oyster Planting Company of Worcester County

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

6. 1901 · 1901-01-19

   The Seaside Hotel is sold for $2,755 and absorbed into the Atlantic Hotel as an annex - the Waggaman interest tightening its grip on the beachfront.

   In the third week of January 1901 "Hon. George M. Upshur as attorney for James D. Massey was in Berlin last week and sold the following property: Seaside Hotel Ocean City, to Mr. N. F. Wilds a business partner of John F. Waggaman of Washington; consideration $2,755. The Seaside Hotel will be improved and used as an annex to the Atlantic Hotel." Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware had been one of the nine incorporators of the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company the previous April. Three months later the Delaware Gazette's peninsula column reported the sale differently - "John F. Waggaman has bought the Seaside Hotel, Ocean City" - and the two accounts are recorded as a conflict rather than reconciled. Either way the effect was the same: the largest boarding house on the beach that was not already Waggaman's became an annex of the hotel that was.

   Atlantic HotelJohn F. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

7. 1901 · 1901-07-18

   Ocean City gets a golf course: the Ocean City Golf and Country Club is incorporated at the Atlantic Hotel in July 1901.

   "A meeting of the incorporators of the Ocean City Golf and Country Club was held at the Atlantic Hotel Thursday morning" - Thursday 18 July 1901. The articles were signed by six incorporators: H. A. Godfrey of Baltimore; Charles Webb of J., of Hagerstown; John F. Waggaman of Anne Arundel County; I. Edgar Ijams of Baltimore; George M. Upshur of Baltimore; and John P. Moore of Snow Hill. Godfrey took the chair, and the officers elected for the year were George M. Upshur president, Charles Webb of J. vice-president, and H. E. Waggaman secretary and treasurer, over a board of governors including Godfrey, F. H. Purnell, J. F. Waggaman, Showell Myers and Ijams. The course was "within twenty minutes of the most distant hotels" and "promises a fine sea bath at the end of the eighteen holes"; the Atlantic's management marked its formal opening with an entertainment on Saturday 27 July. This is the earliest golf course this campaign can document at Ocean City, and the men who chartered it are the men who owned the town.

   Atlantic HotelOcean City Golf and Country ClubJohn F. WaggamanJohn P. MooreJ. Edgar Ijams

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

8. 1924

   George M. Upshur, once Mayor of Ocean City, dies at Snow Hill.

   Worcester Democrat, 31 May 1924: 'GEORGE M. UPSHUR DIES IN SNOW HILL … He also served as colonel on Governor Smith's staff and was once Mayor of Ocean City. Mr. Upshur is survived by a son, Franklin Upshur, who is a member of the present House of Delegates; by two daughters, Mrs. John B. Whaley of Snow Hill and Mrs. Harry F. Covington; by a brother, Francis B. Upshur of Baltimore, and by two sisters … In addition to his numerous political offices, Mr. Upshur was one of the Maryland Commissioners to the Chicago World's Fair. As a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which first nominated Grover Cleveland for the Presidency, he made the motion by which Cleveland's nomination was made unanimous.' His son Franklin Upshur had sold The Gables at Ocean City to Oscar M. Chandler three months earlier.

   John Walter Smith

   Source · checked 2026-08-06