John Hagan
Treasurer of Ocean City · active 1909
Treasurer of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, who signed the town's published financial report for 16 September 1908 – 16 September 1909 — the earliest surviving set of Ocean City municipal accounts this project has found. In November 1909 the Berlin column reported that "Mr. John Hagan, of Ocean City, who lately built a magnificent house in Salisbury, purchased a fine automobile and visited Berlin in it, with a party of friends, but had the misfortune to run into a fence and wreck the machine." He signed the town's annual accounts as Treasurer again in September 1910.
In the record (2)
1909 · 1909-09-25
Ocean City publishes its accounts for the first time in the campaign's record: $9,709.58 in, $9,348.63 out, $360.95 left in the bank.
"FINANCIAL REPORT OF OCEAN CITY, MD. From September 16th, 1908 to September 16th, 1909," signed JOHN HAGAN, Treasurer, printed in the *Democratic Messenger* of 25 September 1909. Total receipts $9,709.58; total expenses $9,348.63; balance in bank $360.95. This is the itemised August-term accounting that Chapters 561 and 658 of 1904 required of the town, and it is the first time in campaign 2 that a published Ocean City statement has actually been found. Receipts came from three tax collectors working three different tax years simultaneously — E. M. Scott still collecting 1906 and 1907, Chas. Ludlam collecting 1908 and 1909 — plus water rent, $40 of stand licences in August, a $2,947.08 note from the Ocean City Beach Company, and $61.30 from the Ocean City Pier Company for lights for 1907 and 1908. Expenses run gasoline for the water works ($878.77), police salary ($445), water-works engineer ($315), $1,200 of bond interest in two payments of $600, hose, ladders and rent for the Fire Company, quarantine groceries, garbage hauling at $60, lamp-lighting, and one line reading "Thomas Taylor, taxing account of bath tub and toilets 5.00."
A whole town's year of government fits on one newspaper column, and it balances to within $360.
Ocean City Beach CompanyOcean City Pier and Improvement CompanyW. Lee CareyFrancis J. Townsend
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1910 · 1910-09-17
Ocean City finally prints the accounts the law required: $4,640.32 in, $4,342.46 out, $297.86 left in the bank.
Under the head 'FINANCIAL REPORT of OCEAN CITY, MD. From September 16th, 1909, to September 13th, 1910', the Democratic Messenger of 17 September 1910 printed the town's whole ledger, receipt by receipt and voucher by voucher, over the signature of JOHN HAGAN, Treasurer. Receipts $4,640.32 — real-estate tax paid in nine instalments, water tax, dog tax, $307.87 from the county treasurer, $128.00 in licences from stands, and $360.95 carried over from the year before. Expenses $4,342.46; balance in bank $297.86. The line items are the best picture of what this town actually did: a treasurer paid $50 a year; $94 to the Messenger for printing; a long file of men paid 30 cents to $14.50 for 'watching fire'; Samuel Johnson the policeman paid in $25 and $50 instalments; Hetty Smith hauling garbage; Walter E. Hudson, engineer, at $35-$36 a month; hundreds of dollars of gasoline from Standard Oil and from E. M. Scott to run the waterworks engine; $272.50 for fire hose; $600 interest on bonds and a dozen separate notes discounted at four different banks; $125 to Slingluff & Slingluff for a damage suit; $52 to the Security Bank Note Co. for bonds; and men paid 60 cents to $9.50 for wiring and setting electric poles. A town of 476 people ran on borrowed money, gasoline and day labour.
Source · checked 2026-08-06