William H. Purnell

In the record (3)

1. 1938 · 1938-07-28

   Ocean City residents formed a Bridge Committee in the summer of 1938 to keep Worcester Street, and asked the state to survey North Fifteenth Street instead

   'The Ocean City Bridge Committee, recently chosen at a meeting of residents favoring Worcester street for a new bridge and whose membership includes L. Franklin Purnell, Dr. Charles W. Purnell, Clarence Carey, Edward Gray and William H. Purnell, secretary, said today that a written official request for a new bridge survey for North 15th street would be sent immediately to the State Roads Commission in Baltimore.' Their case was that approval for a bridge at North Fifteenth Street, together with the improvement and maintenance of the present Worcester Street span, 'would not only build an economical bridge at North 15th street, where rights of way can be secured at low cost, but also re-build the present Worcester street bridge.' It was a committee formed after the town council had already given the state North Division and Caroline Streets, and its members are the same men who turn up three weeks later at the War Department hearing.

   Ocean City Bridge CommitteeMaryland State Roads CommissionL. Franklin PurnellDr. Charles Washington PurnellClarence CareyEdward Gray

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1941 · 1941-12-11

   Four days after Pearl Harbor and on the day Germany declared war, the Ocean City council sat down and organised a home defence council — eleven departments, twenty-two names, and a Department of Evacuation.

   The 1940 minute book does not mention the war once, in the year of the fall of France. The 1941 book does not mention it either — until 11 December. The council met at 7:15 on Thursday evening with Mayor C. P. Cropper and Councilmen Harold Rayne and Raymond Bounds, granted a building permit to Chas. S. Powell for a two-apartment dwelling on the alley between 11th and 12th Streets, let the English Diner move to a site next to the Post Office on Dr. Chas. W. Purnell's ground, and resolved to borrow from the Bank of Ocean City to meet bonds and coupons due 1 January. Then: 'Mr. S. Earl Tromley, John I. Timmons and Miss Lena Riggin were present to help in organizeing home defence council and the following were selected to head the orginization.' Those three were not helpful neighbours. As the Worcester Democrat printed a week later, they were the entire executive of the Worcester County Council of Defense — Tromley its Executive Director, Timmons its Chief Air Raid Warden, and Miss Lena H. Riggin its Executive Secretary, all three of Snow Hill — going town to town. They were carrying an order. The same paper prints the telegram that sent them: 'Supplementing my telegram December 10, immediate arrangements must be made to hold blackouts just as quickly as possible. No delay in this matter, as conditions are very serious. Let me know when ready. Col. Henry Barrett, Director of air raid Precaution Service for Maryland.' The roster Ocean City adopted that night, verbatim from the minute: John B. Lynch, Commander. Harold Rayne and L. B. Cropper, Dept. of Public Safety. J. M. Mumford and Robert Allen, Dept. of Public Works. Dr. F. J. Townsend and Guy R. P. Dennis, Dept. Public Health. Archie Davis and Morris Peacock, Dept. Fire Protection. D. Trimper Sr. and Denard Baker, Dept. Transporation. Arthur Davis and Preston Laws, Dept. Gen. Supplies. Rev. Dewees and F. W. Truitt, Dept. Evacuation. Willie Ludlam and Gladys Jackson, Red Cross. E. M. Scott and Chas. J. Jackson, Communication. Bob Jackson and Wm. H. Purnell, Air Wardens. The council adjourned at eleven. Pocomoke City's mayor and council met specially the same Thursday evening and resolved to organise a Civilian Defense Corps of their own, and Pocomoke's published department list — Public Safety, Evacuation, Transportation, Communications, Public Works, Fire Protection, General Supply, Public Health — is the same scheme under the same headings. So the eleven departments were a template handed down, not a local invention; what Ocean City supplied was twenty-two names, and the names are the whole value of the document. By 18 December the county could report that Home Defense Corps in Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, Berlin and Ocean City were 'now complete in every detail', and Mayor Clifford P. Cropper sat on the county council himself.

   Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseBank of Ocean CityClifford P. CropperHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsJohn B. LynchS. Earl TromleyMiss Lena H. RigginGladys JacksonMorris PeacockWillie LudlamFrancis J. TownsendArchie DavisL. B. CropperRobert AllenJ. M. MumfordDaniel Trimper, Sr.W. Preston LawsF. W. TruittEdward M. Scott

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1941 · 1941-12-14

   Three days after naming them, Ocean City sent its mayor, its defence Commander and one of its two air wardens to a 'Council of War' with the Governor in Annapolis.

   On Sunday 14 December 1941 Governor Herbert R. O'Conor held a 'Council of War' in Annapolis for the counties' Local Directors, Chief air raid wardens, State and District defense council members 'and many county and municipal authorities'. Thirteen Worcester County men and women went. From Snow Hill: Mayor John O. Byrd, S. Earl Tromley, John I. Timmons, Samuel E. Shockley and Miss Lena H. Riggin. From Pocomoke City: Eldred C. Hill, Henry P. Walters, Fred U. Henderson, Lacey F. Dryden and William H. Hancock. And from Ocean City: 'Mayor Clifford P. Cropper, John B. Lynch and William H. Purnell' — the mayor, the man the council had made Commander of its home defence council seventy-two hours earlier, and one of its two Air Wardens. The roster written down in the municipal building on the Thursday evening was in the state capital by Sunday. It was the same weekend that the flashes appeared on the Atlantic horizon off the town they had left behind.

   Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseClifford P. CropperJohn B. LynchS. Earl TromleyJohn I. TimmonsMiss Lena H. Riggin

   Source · checked 2026-08-11