History

J. Edward White (magistrate)

Justice of the Peace and magistrate, Ocean City · active 1940

The magistrate who administered the oath of office to Ocean City's mayor twice in 1940. On 2 January he swore in Clifford P. Cropper, appointed by the council to the unexpired term after Edmond H. Johnson's resignation; the minute calls him 'J. Edward White, Justice of the Peace.' On 10 September he swore in the mayor and the three councilmen elected on 5 August; that minute calls him 'Magistrate J. Edward White.' Ocean City had been given its own central magistrate in 1939, at $500 a year, the cheapest of the four in Worcester County. ⚠ A J. Edward White of Worcester County sat on the Maryland State Conservation Commission in 1920 and is already on this campaign’s record for his judgement of the inlet the February 1920 storm cut. The name, the county and the interval are consistent, but no identification has been made and the two records are deliberately kept apart.

In the record (1)

  1. 1940 · 1940-08-05

    Ocean City's 1940 election was decided by one vote: the third council seat went to Robert Lee Cropper on 128 against Frank Salea's 127

    'An Election was held in Firemens Building Monday August 5th 1940 for purpose of electing one person for Mayor and three persons for City Councilmen for a term of two years from 2nd Tuesday of September 1940 to 1942.' The polls were open from 2 P.M. to 6 P.M. The returns were filed with the clerk by three election judges, Stephen J. Quillin, Horace H. Richardson and Thomas L. Savage. For Mayor: Clifford P. Cropper 167, Charles W. Purnell 97, C. Parker Smith 2, John B. Lynch 3. For City Council: Harold J. Rayne 208, E. Raymond Bounds 189, Robert Lee Cropper 128, Frank Salea 127, Talbot E. Bunting 91. Three seats were to be filled, so Rayne, Bounds and Robert Lee Cropper took them and Salea missed by a single vote. The new mayor and council were sworn in by Magistrate J. Edward White at nine o'clock on the evening of 10 September, and organised by electing Bounds President of the Council and Rayne Treasurer, and reappointing J. M. Mumford Secretary and Wm. H. Scott attorney.

    Four men stood for mayor and 269 votes were cast for them; five stood for three council seats and 743 votes were cast, so the same electors were plainly splitting their tickets. The mayor the council had appointed in January was confirmed by the town in August with a comfortable majority over the doctor who owned the Atlantic Hotel - and the last seat on the board turned on one elector, in a town whose whole year-round population the census had just put near a thousand.

    Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentClifford P. CropperDr. Charles Washington PurnellHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsRobert Lee CropperFrank SaleaJohn B. LynchWilliam H. ScottJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-11