Herman D. Parsons

councilman, Ocean City · b. 1904

Elected to the Ocean City council on 3 August 1942 on twenty-five unopposed votes, replacing Robert L. Cropper, and sworn in on 11 September. He sat at the meetings of 14 October and 11 November 1942 and was absent from 9 December 1942 and 3 January 1943. The 1940 census enters him as Herman Parsons, 36, born Maryland, owner of a house in Ocean City valued at $4,000, with his wife Virginia, 32, and a son, H. Dewey, 3, born in Delaware — which puts his birth about 1903–04 and settles the clerk's wavering between 'Harman' and 'Herman' in favour of Herman.

In the record (11)

1942 · 1942-08-03
Ocean City held a municipal election on 3 August 1942 and twenty-five votes were cast in four hours — every one of them for the unopposed slate.
The polls opened at two in the afternoon in the engine room of the fire house and closed at six. Three judges sat: Clarence Wright, C. T. Jackson and John J. Rayne. 'Only 25 votes were cast and were all cast for' Clifford P. Cropper, mayor, 25 votes; E. Raymond Bounds, council, 25; Harman D. Parsons, 25; Harold J. Rayne, 25. Returns were properly made to the city clerk. A town of about 1,052 year-round people, in the first summer of the war at its own beach, returned its mayor to a third term on twenty-five ballots and no opposition. Robert L. Cropper, on the council since 1940 and still on the letterhead in 1942, does not appear among the elected; Parsons replaces him. The new board was sworn in on Friday 11 September before trial magistrate Edward White and organised itself in the city office in the fire house: Cropper mayor, Bounds president of council, Rayne treasurer, Parsons councilman, Edmond H. Johnson city attorney, J. M. Mumford secretary-treasurer, L. B. Cropper chief of police — the same men who had run the town before, in the same order. The election judge C. T. Jackson matters beyond the arithmetic. A Chas. T. Jackson stood on the clerk's March 1941 list of neighbours notified of a building hearing, and he is a different man from the Chas. J. Jackson whom this council put on its Communication department on 11 December 1941. The 1940 census finds him: Charles T. Jackson, 72, head of household 161 in Ocean City, owner of a house valued at eight thousand dollars, with his wife Mabel and a son-in-law from North Carolina. — 1944 FULL PASS, 2026-08-12 [extended]: Turnout returned in 1944. Ocean City's municipal election of 7 August 1944, held in the Engine Room of the Fire House with polls open 2 to 6 PM, drew 452 VOTES - against the 25 cast in 1942. Daniel Trimper Jr. beat the sitting wartime mayor Clifford P. Cropper 231 to 160, and both sitting councilmen finished last of six for the three council seats.
Clifford P. Cropper E. Raymond Bounds Harold J. Rayne Clarence Wright Charles T. Jackson John J. Rayne Edward White Edmond H. Johnson J. M. Mumford L. B. Cropper Robert Lee Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1942 · 1942-10-14
Five weeks after telling itself the town was dimmed out, Ocean City voted to make the street light on Baltimore Avenue brighter.
The minute of 14 October 1942 is in the clerk's longhand and it is short. 'Lights on street was discussed and it was decided that it would be wise to increase the street light on Baltimore ave to 250 Candle Power and Secretary was ordered to write the local office of Electric Co. requesting the la[mps] be changed.' On 11 September the same council had justified stopping the autumn's colored excursions partly on the ground that 'we were dimed out and not sufficent light'; on 14 October it asked the electric company for a stronger lamp on the town's main street. The two are not necessarily contradictory — a dim-out regulated light visible from seaward, and Baltimore Avenue is a block back from the ocean — but the sequence is worth having, because it is the same council, five weeks apart, treating the darkness as an obstacle when it wanted light and as a justification when it wanted to turn people away. The same meeting refused Chas. Clark leave to build a showcase on the old Denman store because it would extend beyond the building line.
Clifford P. Cropper Harold J. Rayne E. Raymond Bounds
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1942 · 1942-12-09
Ocean City's fire hose failed in 1942 and the town could not simply buy more — the War Production Board had to rate it.
The war reached the fire company through its plumbing. On 11 November 1942 a delegation from the Fire Company came before the council asking 'that the House manager be informed of his duties and that a check of the equipment be made by him on return of apparatus after being used'. The same minute records the substance: hose bought on 23 July 1940 having gone bad, the council decided to ship three sections back for examination and to ask that 600 feet be shipped at once to replace it. Four weeks later, on 9 December, the answer had come from two directions: 'Letters was read from War Production Board reference to rating on hose and from American La-France Foamite Corp. reference to finding of hose returned for inspection.' A town on a barrier island, whose whole history is fire, needed a federal priority rating to replace two-year-old hose. The matter was still unfinished on 3 January 1943, when a letter from Ryder about the hose was read at the first meeting of the new year. That 9 December meeting is the shortest in the 1942 book: convened at 7.30, adjourned at 7.45.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department Clifford P. Cropper Harold J. Rayne E. Raymond Bounds Edmond H. Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1943 · 1943-03-10
The fire company came to the council in March 1943 for an additional fire alarm and got consent to spend up to $175 connecting it.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department Clifford P. Cropper E. Raymond Bounds Harold J. Rayne J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-03-17
A special full-board meeting on 17 March 1943 passed an ordinance handing Caroline Street and North Division Street to the State Roads Commission — the two blocks that carry the bridge traffic onto Baltimore Avenue.
Maryland State Roads Commission Clifford P. Cropper Harold J. Rayne E. Raymond Bounds J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-05-12
The council offered the 1943 lifeguard captaincy to Robert S. Craig in April, then took it back in May because it 'desired to employ Home town Boy to take charge of Guard'.
— 1944 FULL PASS, 2026-08-12 [extended]: The captaincy was contested again in 1945 and the minute book does not say who won it. James Parker asked for the job on 3 April 1945 and no action was taken; Gordon Shipley made formal application on 10 April 1945. On 15 May the secretary was told to answer the letters from boys asking for lifeguard jobs by saying the town would hear from them after 1 June. The 1945 crew went on at about six men over the Memorial Day weekend, a full crew from 15 June at $30 a week, and was kept on past 9 September.
Ocean City Beach Patrol Robert S. Craig Clifford P. Cropper Harold J. Rayne E. Raymond Bounds J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-05-19
Only one man bid to haul Ocean City's garbage in 1943, and Raymond Massey got the summer at $40 a day for 92 days and $20 a day for the thirty days after it.
— 1944 FULL PASS, 2026-08-12 [extended]: In 1944 the price went the other way and fast. Chester A. Lynch took a two-year contract on 19 April 1944 at $50 a day summer and $20 winter; by 26 July he was on $60, by 29 July $72, and by 12 August $99 a day for three trucks and ten men - because, in the clerk's words, 'the garbage man could not get enough help at price he was receiving'. In February 1944 the town had asked for garbage bids and received NONE AT ALL.
Raymond Massey Harold J. Rayne Clifford P. Cropper E. Raymond Bounds J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-06-09
Ocean City's 1943 beach patrol went on the sand on Friday 11 June with four or five men, to be added to 'as demand came'.
Ocean City Beach Patrol James Parker Clifford P. Cropper E. Raymond Bounds J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-06-09
The council held Ocean City's 1943 tax rate at $1.20 per hundred, the same as 1942 — unanimously, in the middle of the war.
— 1944 FULL PASS, 2026-08-12 [extended]: Held again twice. The 1944 rate was set at $1.20 per $100 on 14 June 1944, unanimously, on motion by Rayne seconded by Bounds. The 1945 rate was set at $1.20 on 24 July 1945, on motion by Savage seconded by Dolle - the sixth consecutive year at that figure and the first of the peace.
E. Raymond Bounds Clifford P. Cropper J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-08-11
In the middle of the war, with no tourists to speak of, the council spent an August evening on the need for rebuilding the old Boardwalk and for examining the town's water supply.
Clifford P. Cropper E. Raymond Bounds J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1943 · 1943-09-15
On 15 September 1943 the council wrote to both Maryland senators, its congressman and its state senator asking that the bay channels be redredged, the steel jetty be connected to the Coast Guard base and the inlet jetties be raised.
E. Raymond Bounds Clifford P. Cropper J. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-12

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Herman D. Parsons

In the record (11)

Ocean City held a municipal election on 3 August 1942 and twenty-five votes were cast in four hours — every one of them for the unopposed slate.

Five weeks after telling itself the town was dimmed out, Ocean City voted to make the street light on Baltimore Avenue brighter.

Ocean City's fire hose failed in 1942 and the town could not simply buy more — the War Production Board had to rate it.

The fire company came to the council in March 1943 for an additional fire alarm and got consent to spend up to $175 connecting it.

A special full-board meeting on 17 March 1943 passed an ordinance handing Caroline Street and North Division Street to the State Roads Commission — the two blocks that carry the bridge traffic onto Baltimore Avenue.

The council offered the 1943 lifeguard captaincy to Robert S. Craig in April, then took it back in May because it 'desired to employ Home town Boy to take charge of Guard'.

Only one man bid to haul Ocean City's garbage in 1943, and Raymond Massey got the summer at $40 a day for 92 days and $20 a day for the thirty days after it.

Ocean City's 1943 beach patrol went on the sand on Friday 11 June with four or five men, to be added to 'as demand came'.

The council held Ocean City's 1943 tax rate at $1.20 per hundred, the same as 1942 — unanimously, in the middle of the war.

In the middle of the war, with no tourists to speak of, the council spent an August evening on the need for rebuilding the old Boardwalk and for examining the town's water supply.

On 15 September 1943 the council wrote to both Maryland senators, its congressman and its state senator asking that the bay channels be redredged, the steel jetty be connected to the Coast Guard base and the inlet jetties be raised.