Rev. Otis P. Jefferson
Methodist Episcopal minister, Ocean City · active 1928–1929
Minister of the Methodist Episcopal church at Ocean City, Maryland for 1928, appointed by the Wilmington Conference in its spring session — the appointment list printed in two Delaware weeklies in April 1928 reads simply 'Ocean City, Md. — O. P. Jefferson' among the charges of the Salisbury District. On Saturday 11 August 1928 he married Melissa McCabe of Milford, Delaware, to Walter McGinnis of Crumpton, Maryland, at Ocean City. He is the only Ocean City clergyman the 1928 corpus names. HIS FORENAME, printed in 1929: the Milford Chronicle of 15 November has "Rev. Otis Jefferson, of Ocean City, Md." preaching at the Bethesda home-coming, and 22 November prints it in full — "Rev. Otis P. Jefferson, of Ocean City, Md." — naming him among the former pastors of the Slaughter Neck church.
In the record (1)
1928 · 1928-08-11
The Wilmington Conference sends the Rev. O. P. Jefferson to Ocean City for 1928, and in August he marries a Delaware couple who drove down for the day.
The Wilmington Conference appointments, printed in the Milford Chronicle of 6 April and the Smyrna Times of 4 April 1928, list among the Salisbury District charges: "Ocean City, Md. — O. P. Jefferson." In August the Milford Chronicle recorded him at work: "Mrs. Melissa McCabe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Austin Wilgus of this town, and Walter McGinnis of Crumpton, Md., were quietly married Saturday at Ocean City, Md., by Rev. O. P. Jefferson, minister of the M. E. Church there. Miss Helen McClarey of Philadelphia was bridesmaid and William Wilgus, brother of the bride, was the best man."
It is a small thing and it is the only named clergyman the 1928 corpus gives Ocean City. The wedding is the more interesting half: a Delaware bride, a Kent County Maryland groom, a Philadelphia bridesmaid, married at the beach on a Saturday in August. Ocean City had become a place you went to get married in, because it was where everybody already was.
Source · checked 2026-08-06