History

James H. Mumford

Collector of Corporation Taxes for Ocean City · d. 1925

Ocean City's tax collector in 1903, who advertised and conducted the town's sales of lots on which corporation taxes were in arrears — lots belonging to Miss Mary M. Semmes, to the former councilman Albert C. Carey and to George W. Hoffman. The office is the direct successor to the 1893 'collector of corporation taxes' held by Baldwin F. Williams. He appears in the same year's social columns as 'Capt. James H. Mumford... of Ocean City.' He died at home in Ocean City on the night of Sunday 6 December 1925, aged eighty-four, and was buried at Berlin. By then he was 'Squire Mumford': a farmer in early life, then a hardware merchant, and finally the town's magistrate, where the county paper says he bore the reputation of meting out justice in an admirable manner.

In the record (3)

  1. 1903 · 1903-05-09

    In 1903 a Baltimore Avenue corner lot in Block 1 North was advertised at $400 on terms, while the county's land records show whole Ocean City lots changing hands for $90 to $380.

    The Snow Hill real-estate agent O. M. Purnell ran the same three-line advertisement all summer: "$400 will buy Baltimore Avenue Corner lot in Block 1, N., Ocean City, on time to suit purchaser." The Worcester County land records, printed monthly in the same paper, give the transactions behind it: on 9 May, "Oscar M. Purnell from Thomas W. Jenkins, 2 lots at Ocean City. Consideration $380," and "John E. Lynch, from Abigail Keen, Lot No. 160, Ocean City. Consideration $90"; on 7 February, "John D. Showell, from Edwin F. Abell et al., two lots in Ocean City. Consideration $250." In March, "T. M. Purnell, Esq., has purchased the lot on Baltimore Avenue, adjoining his cottage at Ocean City, of Thos. W. Jenkins, of Baltimore." At the other end of the ledger, the town was selling lots for unpaid corporation taxes: James H. Mumford, Collector of Corporation Taxes for Ocean City, advertised lot No. 7 in Block 17 North (assessed to Miss Mary M. Semmes, taxes of 1900 and 1901 in arrears) and lots 196, 200, 203 and 205 North (assessed to Albert C. Carey, taxes of 1901) for sale on the premises on 7 February 1903, and lot No. 3 in Block 6 South (assessed to George W. Hoffman) for 13 June. Compare 1899, when Waggaman's lots sold at $105 to $385 [fact:1899-waggaman-owns-the-town].

    Thomas W. JenkinsAlbert C. Carey

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1904 · 1904-09-24

    The old Sinepuxent Beach Company plat comes apart at the courthouse door: Ocean City lots sold for 1902 taxes, one of them to the county itself.

    Through the summer of 1904 the county sheriff advertised, and in the autumn reported, a tax sale of Ocean City property for state and county taxes in arrear for 1902. The lots are described by their positions on 'the plat of the property formerly owned by the Sinepuxent Beach Co., of Baltimore City' and by the deeds out of that company: the west half of Block 3 South, 140 feet on Baltimore Avenue by 150 deep, assessed to John D. Cook's heirs, sold to Sarah H. Taber; two lots at South 7th Street, one on Baltimore Avenue and one on Atlantic Avenue, 50 by 142 feet each, assessed to Curtis W. Holcomb, sold to William David Knox; about nine acres in Sinepuxent Neck assessed to Caroline Hickman's heirs, sold to Zadok P. Henry; lot 1 in Block 6 South, 50 by 142 on Baltimore Avenue, assessed to Hennie Levi, bought in by the County Commissioners of Worcester County for want of a bidder; and lot 183 on the plat of the original town, on the bay shore, assessed to William T. Taber. A second sale advertised for 4 October 1904 covered part of lot 45 assessed to William T. Taber for 1902 and 1903. Separately, James H. Mumford, Collector of taxes for the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, had sold town lots for municipal taxes, and the ratifications were still working through the Circuit Court in June 1904.

    Eight years after the Sinepuxent Beach Company told a Baltimore court it was insolvent, its plat is still the map everybody uses and its deeds are still the chain of title — and the lots it sold are being knocked down for unpaid taxes, one of them to the county because nobody bid.

    Sinepuxent Beach CompanyWilliam T. Taber

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  3. 1925 · 1925-12-06

    James H. Mumford — "Squire Mumford," farmer, hardware dealer, and magistrate of Ocean City — died at his home in the town, aged eighty-four.

    Worcester Democrat, 12 December 1925: "James H. Mumford, better known as Squire Mumford, a widower, died Sunday night at his home in Ocean City, at the age of eighty-four. Mr. Mumford, although quite aged, had been in his usual state of good health until about two weeks ago when he gradually became weaker until he finally lost his fight against the aggressive foe, paralysis. In his early and middle life, Mr. Mumford was a farmer, later conducting a hardware store and finally becoming magistrate in Ocean City where he bore the reputation of meting out justice in an admirable manner. Funeral services were conducted in the home and interment took place in Buckingham cemetery, Berlin."

    The registry already had him as the man who auctioned off lots for unpaid corporation taxes in 1903; twenty-two years later he was the town's magistrate, and the paper gave him a paragraph.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06