History

Maurice W. Costen

Chairman of the Worcester County Council of Defense, of Pocomoke City, and the county's director of local defense in December 1941. He was the man Col. Henry Barrett, Director of the Air Raid Precaution Service for Maryland, telegraphed on 10 December and again immediately after: 'immediate arrangements must be made to hold blackouts just as quickly as possible. No delay in this matter, as conditions are very serious. Let me know when ready.' The organisation of home defence corps in Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City over the following week — including the meeting in the Ocean City municipal building on 11 December — was the answer to that telegram.

In the record (1)

  1. 1941 · 1941-12-20

    Within a week the county reported itself organized 'in every detail': four Home Defense Corps — Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City — under a Worcester County Council of Defense on which Ocean City's mayor sat, waiting on a 'zero hour' for a total blackout.

    On Thursday 18 December 1941 the Worcester County Council of Defense announced that 'Organization of Home Defense Corps in Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, Berlin and Ocean City are now complete in every detail', and that its own members had been approved that week by the Board of Worcester County Commissioners. The Worcester Democrat printed the whole slate: Chairman, Maurice Costen of Pocomoke City; Executive Director, S. Earl Tromley of Snow Hill; Executive Secretary, Miss Lena H. Riggin of Snow Hill; Honorary Chairman, Charles L. Mason of Pocomoke City; Chief Air Raid Warden, John I. Timmons of Snow Hill; Chief of Public Utilities Service, R. Harlan Robertson; Chief of Public Information, Jack Culver; Chief of Emergency Service, G. Hale Harrison of Berlin; Chief of Police Service, J. William Hall of Berlin; Chief of Medical Service, Dr. Louis G. Llewelyn of Pocomoke City; and among the other council members Thomas F. Johnson, Samuel E. Shockley and Mayor John O. Byrd of Snow Hill, Dr. Thomas Y. Franklin and Mayor William Whaley of Berlin, Mayor E. Wilford Ross of Pocomoke City, and Mayor Clifford P. Cropper of Ocean City. Two days later, on 20 December, Tromley told the Salisbury Times that 'with defense in Worcester County completely organized', plans were almost ready for a complete air raid blackout across the county 'within the next few nights', which would 'press into action the four Home Defense Corps, now functioning in Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City, all to act simultaneously at a "zero hour".' The county's first blackout had already been rehearsed at Pocomoke City on the Wednesday night — 17 December — and 'the half-hour test proved successful'; Snow Hill's practice manoeuvre followed at one o'clock on the Sunday. After rumours of a surprise blackout, Tromley said, no test could be held in future 'without official sanction'. Nine days after the Ocean City council named its wardens, its corps was one of four in a county rehearsing for air raids, and its mayor was sitting on the body that ordered them.

    Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseS. Earl TromleyMiss Lena H. RigginJohn I. TimmonsClifford P. Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-11