History

W. H. Kearfott

proprietor of Eagle's Nest, Sinepuxent Bay · active 1925

Proprietor of "Eagle's Nest," a bayside lodge and resort about three miles below Ocean City on Sinepuxent Bay. In July 1925 he laid on a crab feast on its lawn for more than eighty members of the Maryland and Del-Mar-Via Press Associations, who reached it by motor boat from the town's wharf with a jazz orchestra aboard, and again by flat-bottomed boat for the return. Two governors were in the party. His surname is printed Kearfott, Kearfoot and Rearfott across five accounts of the same afternoon.

In the record (1)

  1. 1925 · 1925-07-13

    Governors Ritchie of Maryland and Robinson of Delaware, two congressmen and a Virginia gubernatorial candidate all spoke at Ocean City in one evening, 13 July 1925.

    The Maryland Press Association and the Del-Mar-Via Press Association held their joint summer outing at Ocean City on 12–14 July 1925, more than eighty newspapermen, entertained free of charge by the Board of Trade and the hotel proprietors. Monday's meeting was in the auditorium of the State School building, decorated with flags and bunting; the address of welcome was made by Mayor William McCabe, with responses from Ridgely Melvin of Annapolis and Edwin H. Brown of Centreville, presidents of the two associations. State Comptroller William S. Gordy, Jr. "explained why the several counties had not received their full quota of school funds." Charles A. Carter of the Colonial Hotel, "a former western newspaper man," welcomed the visitors for the hotel men; "The formal welcome on behalf of the Board of Trade was made by Dr. Charles W. Purnell, its president, and also proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel." At noon the party took a motor-boat cruise down Sinepuxent Bay to the inlet, "enlivened by a jazz orchestra," and landed at "Eagle's Nest," the bayside lodge of W. H. Kearfott about three miles below the town, for a crab feast on the lawn. In the evening Governor Albert C. Ritchie of Maryland and Governor Robert P. Robinson of Delaware spoke, with Congressmen T. Alan Goldsborough and John Philip Hill; G. Walter Mapp, candidate for governor of Virginia, was also on the programme. The invitation had been extended the previous January at Salisbury by Clarence L. Vincent, editor of the Snow Hill Democratic Messenger, and the associations chose Crisfield for 1926.

    Two sitting governors, two congressmen and a would-be third governor, on a beach that fifty years earlier had one hotel and no road.

    Atlantic HotelMaryland Press AssociationDel-Mar-Via Press AssociationBoard of Trade of Ocean CityAlbert C. RitchieRobert P. RobinsonT. Alan GoldsboroughWilliam W. McCabeDr. Charles Washington PurnellCharles A. Carter

    Source · checked 2026-08-06