Hon. Thomas A. Smith

In the record (4)

1. 1904 · 1904-08-10

   In one week of August 1904 both parties held their First District congressional conventions at Ocean City — and nominated two brothers named Jackson.

   The Republicans of the First Congressional District met at Ocean City on Thursday afternoon, 4 August 1904, and renominated Congressman William H. Jackson by acclamation; A. P. Barnes of Snow Hill called the meeting to order, State Senator Henry M. McCullough of Cecil County was chairman and a Mr. Reese of Crisfield secretary. Six days later, on Wednesday 10 August, the Democrats of the same district assembled 'in the hall of the Atlantic Casino' at noon, with Henry R. Lewis of Caroline as chairman and George R. Wilson of Talbot as secretary. Leaders from every county had tendered the nomination to ex-Governor John Walter Smith the night before; he declined, was asked again to name a candidate, and named Elihu E. Jackson of Wicomico, whom he then put in nomination himself after taking the proxy of a Worcester delegate. 'It was ten minutes before he could commence his speech as he was given the greatest ovation ever witnessed in the state.' Jackson was chosen by acclamation. The Messenger of 13 August ran a portrait of Smith under the headline 'Brother Against Brother.'

   Ocean City had been Convention City for the teachers and the bankers since 1898. In 1904 it became the room where the Eastern Shore chose its congressman — twice in seven days, for opposite parties — and the hall it happened in was the Atlantic Casino.

   Atlantic Casino CompanyJohn Walter SmithElihu Emory JacksonHon. William H. Jackson

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1904 · 1904-09-14

   The nominee said no, so the Democrats came back to a closed-up resort on 14 September and opened the Plimhimmon for one day to pick another.

   By 20 August the county paper reported that ex-Governor Elihu E. Jackson had written to Henry R. Lewis, chairman of the notification committee, that he did not want to go to Congress and declined the nomination, adding that had he been the convention's first choice he 'would have found it difficult to say no' — and that he would probably have declined in any case for family reasons. State chairman Vandiver could not reach Lewis, who was in St. Louis. Lewis eventually issued the call, and the convention reconvened at Ocean City at noon on Wednesday 14 September 1904 and unanimously nominated Hon. Thomas A. Smith, ex-senator of Caroline County, put in nomination by Harvey L. Cooper of Caroline. 'Although the season has practically closed at Ocean City,' the Messenger noted, 'arrangements have been made for the accommodation of the Democratic convention … The Plimhimmon Hotel will be open and a suitable hall for the session of the convention will be provided.'

   Plimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaElihu Emory Jackson

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

3. 1906

   Teachers, lawyers, horticulturists and a congressional convention: Ocean City hosts four state bodies in eleven weeks.

   The Maryland State Teachers' Association held its thirty-ninth annual session at Ocean City on 26-29 June, its fourth consecutive year in the town, with morning sessions at 9.30 and evening sessions at 8 in the Casino and committee meetings at the Ocean City public school; the executive committee had settled the dates at the State Normal School in March, and the invited speakers included Governor Warfield and State Superintendent M. Bates Stephens. The Maryland State Bar Association opened its eleventh annual meeting on Wednesday 11 July, meeting "in the parlors of the Atlantic" with Judge James Alfred Pearce of the Court of Appeals presiding and closing with a banquet at the Atlantic Hotel on Friday evening. On Thursday 12 July the Democrats of the First Congressional District met at Ocean City and renominated Congressman Thomas A. Smith by acclamation, every county seconding; Smith was in the town, was fetched to the hall by a notification committee, and spoke. In August the State Horticultural Society met at Ocean City, and from 27 August to 7 September the Tri-County Teachers' Institute for Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset held its sectional sessions in the five-room public school building and its general sessions in the Atlantic Casino.

   The convention business the town started chasing in 1898 is now a schedule, not a coup.

   Atlantic HotelState Teachers' Association of MarylandMaryland State Bar AssociationAtlantic Casino CompanyEdwin Warfield

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1906 · 1906-03-17

   Congressman Thomas A. Smith introduces a joint resolution for a federal survey of Sinepuxent Bay — to price an inlet.

   The Messenger of 17 March 1906, under "Congressman Smith Working For Sinepuxent Inlet": "Representative Smith, of Maryland, has introduced a joint resolution for a survey of Sinepuxent Bay, the object being to secure estimates from the War Department of the cost of making an inlet from the Atlantic Ocean into the bay, which is separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of sand. A permanent inlet would make the waters of the bay salt, and would give a great impetus to oyster growing and add much to the resources of Worcester county. Another purpose of an inlet would be to afford in the bay a secure harbor for coastwise vessels, which now have no place of refuge except the Delaware Breakwater, within a long distance of Ocean City, in which vicinity wrecks have been frequent." The resolution came out of a winter-long argument in the paper's own columns: a reprinted Baltimore American survey (10 February) argued that the only remedy for the bay's dead oyster grounds was "the reopening of an inlet from the ocean between Ocean City and Green Run," recalled that in the great October storm the surf cut through the quarter-mile-wide beach two and a half miles south of Ocean City and "a little aid on man's part would have given the desired inlet," and priced the job at about $5,000 with dynamite and diking; a Worcester oysterman replied on 17 February that it would cost nearer $10,000 and that no dynamite was needed — build a V-shaped bulkhead from the mainland to the beach and let the tide cut the inlet itself.

   Twenty-seven years before the 1933 storm cut the inlet for free, Congress was being asked what it would cost to cut one on purpose.

   Source · checked 2026-08-06