James Z. Powell

In the record (10)

1. 1894 · 1894-06-21

   Congress Hall advertised in Washington all summer 1894: 'NOW OPEN; capacity 300 guests; directly on the beach. W. O. Beckenbaugh, Manager.'

   The 1894 pass could get no terms out of Congress Hall — 'the terms are reasonable' was all the county paper printed — because the county paper is not where Congress Hall advertised. The house took a standing classified in the Washington Evening Star from 21 June through at least 19 July 1894: 'CONGRESS HALL, OCEAN CITY, MD., NOW OPEN; capacity 300 guests; directly on the beach. W. O. BECKENBAUGH, Manager. Send for descriptive circulars, terms, &c.' That is a capacity figure for the town's second house and a named manager, and the name has a second life: on 14 August 1894 W. O. Beckenbaugh and Margaret L. Beckenbaugh, his wife, executed a mortgage on Ocean City real estate and hotel property in favour of Benjamin P. Selby, agent of the heirs of W. B. R. Selby, recorded in Liber F. H. P. No. 5, folios 280-282 — and through January, February and March 1895 the county paper carried the mortgagee's advertisement of a sale of 'Ocean City Real Estate AND HOTEL PROPERTY' under it. The manager of the 300-bed house mortgaged Ocean City hotel property six weeks after the season opened and was being advertised out of it by the following winter.

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1895 · 1895-09-14

   Mid-September and Congress Hall still has over a hundred guests: 'Ocean City is by no means deserted.'

   The Democratic Messenger of 14 September 1895: 'Proprietor, James Z. Powell, of Congress Hall says that he still has over one hundred guests and that Ocean City is by no means deserted. The Atlantic Hotel is also well patronized and they expect to keep things humming until the first of October at least. He says the weather is perfect and the season fully up to the standard.' Set against the Evening Star's advertisement that Congress Hall 'will open July 1, 1895, under the old and successful management,' the house ran a fourteen-week season in 1895 and finished it full.

   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.

   David J. AdkinsReverdy J. DennisCornelius F. CoffinGeorge M. Upshur

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1899

   Ocean City sues its own railroad for unpaid taxes and wins in the Court of Appeals — and the State promptly uses the ruling to claim $60,000 from the same company.

   The Democratic Messenger of 18 March 1899 reported the decision: "Judge Briscoe rendered the opinion in the suit brought by the mayor and city council of Ocean City against the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company to recover certain taxes alleged to be due and unpaid by the defendant company … The principal question presented by the appeal is whether the property formerly owned by the Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad in Ocean City, and now owned by the appellant company, is exempt from taxation, under section 2 of chapter 133 of the acts of 1886. The court says: 'We are of the opinion that the property of the defendant company … is liable for taxation, and, for the reasons we have given, the court committed no error in rejecting the appellant's prayers, so the judgment will be affirmed.'" The Messenger returned to it on 26 August under the head "Claims $60,000 Taxes": the old Eastern Shore Railroad had been exempt under its charter, the new owners "refused to pay taxes to the city authorities of Ocean City," the suit "was instituted by Mayor C. J. Purnell, and Councilmen Powell, Dennis and Adkins and resulted in a verdict in their favor, by the Court of Appeals," and State Tax Collector Parlett was now claiming $60,000 in state taxes on the strength of it, against the company's attorney's denial.

   A resort of a few hundred winter residents took the railway that made it to Maryland's highest court, and beat it — and Annapolis then followed the town through the door it had opened.

   Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayWicomico and Pocomoke RailroadThe Commissioners of Ocean CityClayton J. PurnellDavid J. Adkins

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

5. 1899 · 1899-06-05

   Mayor James Z. Powell resigns at a council meeting on 5 June 1899, Clayton J. Purnell is elected in his place — and Powell then takes a seat on the council he had just chaired.

   The Democratic Messenger of 10 June 1899: "At a meeting of the city council of Ocean City held last Monday Mr. James Z. Powell, then mayor, resigned and Clayton J. Purnell, Esq., was unanimously elected to succeed him. Mr. Powell was afterwards elected a member of the city council vice Mr. Cornelius Collins resigned." The Delaware Gazette and State Journal of 15 June carried it independently in its Maryland column: "Clayton J. Purnell has been elected mayor of Ocean City, vice James Z. Powell, resigned … James Z. Powell has been elected a councilman at Ocean City, succeeding Cornelius F. Collin, resigned." By August the county paper was calling him "Mayor C. J. Purnell" as a matter of course, and naming his council alongside him — Powell, Dennis and Adkins. The Maryland Manual's mayors list dates Purnell's term from 1900; the contemporary press puts him in the chair from June 1899. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: Confirmed word for word from a second, independent filming of the Democratic Messenger of 10 June 1899 held by the Worcester County Library, which reads 'vice Mr. Cornelius Coftin resigned' where Chronicling America reads 'Collins' — the Delaware Gazette's 'Cornelius F. Collin' remains the best reading of the retiring councilman's name. No new evidence bears on the Maryland Manual conflict, which should stand as recorded.

   Purnell succeeded Powell as mayor in June 1899 — a year earlier than the Maryland Manual's list shows.

   The Commissioners of Ocean CityClayton J. PurnellDavid J. Adkins

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

6. 1902 · 1902-08-04

   On 4 August 1902 Ocean City elected John F. Waggaman — owner of the Atlantic Hotel and most of the plat — mayor of the town he already owned.

   The Democratic Messenger's Ocean City column of 26 July announced the first election under the new charter: "On Monday, the 4th of August, we will have an election for Mayor and City Council, and there is already considerable interest and feeling being manifested in the matter. One ticket has been placed in the field headed by John F. Waggaman, for Mayor, with Captain Ludlum, James Z. Powell, John D. Showell, Calvin B. Taylor and Thomas Crow[ell] ..." — five councilmen, exactly as Ch. 569 required. The paper's state-news column of 9 August reported the result in one line: "An election for mayor and city council of Ocean City was carried by the ticket headed by Mr. John F. Waggaman for mayor." The Maryland Manual dates his term 1902-1903 and gives Clayton J. Purnell 1900-1902; Purnell was still being called mayor in the county paper in late May 1902, which fits.

   A proprietor-mayor. Waggaman had owned the ocean front since 1897, driven the town's first jetties in 1898 and been credited with beautifying the place in 1901; in 1902 the legislature widened the franchise to non-resident property owners and the property owner took the chair.

   John F. WaggamanClayton J. PurnellJohn D. ShowellChristopher LudlamCalvin B. Taylor

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

7. 1904 · 1904-08-01

   Two tickets, one warm but good-natured fight: Capt. Christopher Ludlam is re-elected mayor and the People's ticket loses.

   'The election for Mayor and City Council of Ocean City was held Monday afternoon. Two tickets were in the field, and the fight was a warm but good natured one, resulting in a victory for the regulars who represent the faction already in power, over the people's ticket, which was headed by Wm. T. Taber. Capt. Christopher Ludlam was re-elected Mayor and the following councilmen were also elected: James Z. Powell, Reverdy J. Dennis, Thomas J. Cropper, John D. Showell and John L. Johnson.' The paper adds that the Mayor and City Council 'will enter upon their new terms on September 1st'; the charter as re-enacted the same spring (Ch. 457 of 1904) says the term runs from the second Monday in September, which in 1904 was 12 September.

   This is the first Ocean City municipal election this campaign has been able to read as an election — two slates, a named challenger, and a full council. The town's own books had been stolen in 1896 and the eleven-year blank that followed is the reason a one-paragraph item in a Snow Hill weekly is the best surviving record of who governed the beach.

   The Commissioners of Ocean CityChristopher LudlamReverdy J. DennisThomas J. CropperJohn D. ShowellJohn L. JohnsonWilliam T. Taber

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

8. 1904 · 1904-08-25

   Ocean City puts five $1,000 coupon bonds on the market — the first municipal borrowing this campaign has caught the town actually doing.

   Over the names of 'CHRISTOPHER C. LUDLAM, Mayor' and 'JAMES Z. POWELL, Treasurer,' the town advertised in the county paper that on or before Thursday 25 August 1904 at 3 p.m. sealed proposals would be received by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City for the purchase of five coupon bonds of $1,000 each, dated 1 July 1904, the first maturing 1 January 1920 and one each succeeding year until all were due; interest payable semi-annually in January and July at the Exchange and Savings Bank of Berlin, Md.; the bonds free from all taxation; the right reserved to reject any and all bids. The notice cites 'chapter 501 of Act of 1904'; the act actually authorising the issue is Chapter 561 (see conflicts). The interest rate is illegible in the OCR of the notice and is not asserted here.

   The Commissioners of Ocean CityChristopher Ludlam

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

9. 1908 · 1908-08-03

   W. Lee Carey is elected mayor of Ocean City — nominated in the Atlantic Casino a week earlier, and elected without a contest.

   The Democratic Messenger of 1 August 1908 reported that "at a meeting Monday night in the Atlantic Casino, Ocean City, W. Lee Carey was nominated for Mayor, and T. J. Cropper, James Z. Powell, Samuel J. Massey, William Taylor, of Ocean City, and John L. Johnson, of Frederick, Md., for Councilmen, to serve a term of two years each." The meeting was Monday 27 July; the election followed on the first Monday in August, 3 August 1908, as the charter required. The paper's Berlin column a week later: "The election at Ocean City passed quietly resulting in Mr. Lee Carey becoming Mayor. No one is more interested in the progress of the 'City by the Sea' than he, and we predict good government and a boom under his administration." No opposing ticket is mentioned — unlike 1904, when two tickets fought a "warm but good natured" contest. Carey was a Berlin man: he sat as an East Berlin District delegate in the county convention that June, and in July he was laid up at his parents' home in Berlin with inflammatory rheumatism, recovering only days before his nomination. Three weeks after the election the real-estate transfers column recorded "W. Lee Carey from Cornelius F. Coffin, parcel of land in Ocean City. Consideration, $10 etc." — the charter required the mayor and every councilman to be a real-estate owner in the town. This is the first contemporary confirmation of the Maryland Manual's 1908-1912 term for Carey, and the first time in this campaign the Manual has been corroborated rather than corrected.

   Atlantic Casino CompanyW. Lee CareyThomas J. CropperJohn L. JohnsonCornelius F. Coffin

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

10. 1934 · 1934-12-24

    The town secretary sat down and wrote out every mayor Ocean City had ever had — 1892 to 1934, on one page

    On 24 December 1934, on Mayor and Council letterhead, secretary and treasurer J. M. Mumford typed a circular beginning: 'I occasionly have an inquiry as to who had served our city as Mayor and their election. So thinking probally others might be interested I have carefully gone over our old records and listed the names and years each served.' What follows is the town's own succession list: three commissioners elected 2 May 1892 — John F. Waggamon, William C. Franklin and William B. Wilson, with Wilson president of the board and Franklin secretary-treasurer; then Wilson elected mayor 7 May 1894; George M. Upshur 1 May 1896; James Z. Powell 1 August 1898; Clayton J. Purnell 6 August 1900; John F. Waggamon 1902, 'Resigned Oct. 20th 1903 remainder of term filled by Capt. Cristropher Ludlam'; Ludlam 1904 and 1906; W. Lee Carey 3 August 1908 and 1 August 1910; William B. S. Powell 1912 and 3 August 1914; Capt. John B. Jones 7 August 1916; Edward M. Scott 5 August 1918; E. E. Collins 2 August 1920; 'William C. McCabe served to Sept 1934'; and 'Aug. 6th 1934 William T. Elliott, 2 years.' The document survives because Mumford filed a copy in the minute book, where it sits as the last item of the 1934 record.

    The most useful thing in the 1934 minute book is not a decision at all. It is a clerk answering the same question often enough that he finally wrote the answer down — and in doing so he left the campaign a primary-source succession list for forty-two years of a town whose own books were supposed to have been mutilated in 1896.

    John M. MumfordWilliam W. McCabeClayton J. PurnellW. Lee CareyWilliam B. S. PowellEdward M. ScottElbridge E. CollinsJohn F. Waggaman

    Source · checked 2026-08-11