Thomas E. Waggaman

In the record (2)

1. 1892 · 1892-03-14

   A Washington real-estate broker takes control of the Sinepuxent Beach Company, and the whole Atlantic Hotel with it.

   The Democratic Messenger of March 19, 1892: "The Synepuxent Beach Company Monday elected the following officers: President, R. G. Keene; vice president, Harvey L. Page; secretary and treasurer, Thomas E. Waggaman; assistant secretary W. J. Warrington. Mr. Waggaman, who is a Washington real estate broker, has bought a controlling interest. The Atlantic Hotel has been purchased by a Washington syndicate that will remodel and improve the building. The treasurer reported a balance of $23,000 after paying [dividends] last October. A party of twenty-five interested in the beach will visit Ocean City Sunday, leaving Baltimore Saturday and returning Monday." Robert Goldsborough Keene, one of the four incorporators of December 1890, replaced Dr. J. Pembroke Thom as president. A week later the paper watched the new money arrive: "A special train passed through Berlin Saturday night en route for Ocean City with a large party of capitalists and mechanics from Washington who propose to develop this favorite summer resort. A material change may be expected in its appearance ere the season opens." — 1892 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE CONFLICT IS RESOLVED AND THE FLAG SHOULD COME OFF. The Washington real-estate man who took control of the Sinepuxent Beach Company in March 1892 was JOHN FLOYD WAGGAMAN of 700 14th St. N.W., not his brother Thomas E. Waggaman of 917 F St. N.W. The evidence, in order of weight: (1) The Snow Hill paper corrects itself twice within four months. Its own Ocean City column of 25 June 1892 has “John F. Waggaman, of Washington” arriving by special train with the B&O officers; its own Real Estate Transfers column of 9 July 1892 records “John F. Waggaman from Atlantic Hotel Company of Ocean City, Md.… Consideration $15,000” and “The Sinepuxent Beach Company, from John F. Waggaman and wife… Consideration $15,000”, and in the same column “John F. Waggaman from Wm. S. Johnson and wife a tract of land… called the ‘Isle of Wight,’ containing 400 acres.” (2) The Washington Evening Star of 22 December 1892 lists the company’s directors for the coming year and the Waggaman on the board is “J. F. Waggaman”; the Star of 8 February 1895 gives the full board with “John F. Waggaman”. (3) The Star of 21 August 1895, reporting John S. Larcombe’s stockholder suit, narrates the founding: “Some time in 1891… a majority of the stock was to be put into a pool… to be voted by Page and John F. Waggaman, as trustees… In the spring of 1892, Mr. Larcombe says, he received a paper…” That places John F. as the controlling Washington principal at the exact moment the Messenger wrote Thomas E. (4) Across the entire Evening Star run, ‘Sinepuxent’ and ‘Waggaman’ co-occur on only seven pages, the earliest in 1895, and every one names John F. There is no source anywhere putting Thomas E. Waggaman with the company other than that single Messenger paragraph. (5) The two men were different people and were brothers, both sons of John Henry Waggaman: Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia for 1893 (compiled late 1892), printed p. 933, lists “WAGGAMAN JOHN F, real estate, 700 14th nw, h Woodley pk” and “WAGGAMAN THOMAS E, real estate broker, loans and auctioneer, 917 F nw, h 3300 O nw” — separate offices and separate firms in every year checked (1875, 1893, 1894, 1898). The brotherhood is stated in the Star of 7 July 1910, p. 1, on Thomas E.’s estate settlement: “John F. Waggaman, brother of the deceased.” AND THE ERROR IS EXPLICABLE, which is worth printing rather than hiding: the Messenger’s descriptor — ‘a Washington real estate broker’ — is verbatim THOMAS E.’s directory line (‘real estate broker, loans and auctioneer’), while John F. is listed simply as ‘real estate’. A Snow Hill compositor working from a Baltimore wire item, with two Waggaman brothers both in Washington real estate, reached for the better-known name. SEPARATELY, the illegible dividend figure is legible in the portal’s scan of the same page: “The treasurer reported a balance of $23,000 after paying 10 per cent dividends last October.” And the company styles itself ‘of Baltimore City’ in every 1892 Worcester County deed abstract and in the Evening Star’s December report, against the ‘Washington syndicate’ framing.

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyAtlantic Hotel CompanyRobert Goldsborough KeeneDr. J. Pembroke Thom

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1922

   Ocean City, Md. becomes a fixture of the Washington society columns in 1922 — including the wife and daughter of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, the Navy's first chief of aeronautics.

   The Washington Herald's 33 Ocean City pages for 1922 are almost entirely social notes, and that is the finding: the town has become a routine destination for Washington and Alexandria families, reached by motor and recorded like Atlantic City or Rehoboth. "Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kemper ... with their son and daughters ... will go to Ocean City, Md., shortly and open their cottage for the summer" (17 June). "Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Nicholson, Jr. will return Saturday after spending several weeks at Ocean City, Md." (27 July). "Mr. and Mrs. Harry Dawson left the end of the week by motor for Ocean City, Md." (17 July). And on 12 August, under a photograph captioned "REAR ADMIRAL MOFFETT — Home from aerial trip": "Mrs. Moffett, who was with Rear Admiral Moffett in Philadelphia, has gone to Ocean City, Md., to join their daughter, Miss Jane Moffett." Moffett was then the first chief of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics; he would die in the crash of the airship Akron in 1933.

   Source · checked 2026-08-06