Walter E. Hudson
town engineer · active 1909-1910
Engineer of the Ocean City waterworks, the town's only full-time salaried employee in the published accounts of 1909-10. He was paid $35 or $36 a month, twelve months running, listed under 'Expenses of Water Works' alongside the gasoline that ran his engine — 385 gallons here, 260 there, from E. M. Scott and the Standard Oil Company. James Lynch appears once as assistant engineer at the same $35. The town's water pressure, which in 1908 was 'supposed to throw water over the tallest buildings in the town', was Hudson's to keep up.
In the record (1)
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