William H. Scott
President of the Ocean City City Council · active 1934–1935–
Elected President of the Ocean City council at its organising meeting of 10 September 1934 and still holding the office throughout 1935, when he called every special meeting to order and declared every resolution carried. In 1935 he personally handled the town's most awkward business: he was sent to talk to the Berlin Building & Loan about a taxpayer's arrears in February; he was asked to draft the dog-muzzling ordinance in April; the securing of the season's lifeguards was left to him alone by resolution on 23 April; and he was sent with the town attorney to find out whom to employ as engineer for the sewer. He moved the resolution holding the 1935 tax rate at $1.00 per hundred, and voted aye on the acceptance of the federal loan and grant, on the calling of the bond referendum and on the issue of the bonds. The registry separately holds person:william-t-scott, a Green Run Beach hotel proprietor of 1892, and person:edward-m-scott; no relation is asserted. — 1936 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1936 FULL PASS: re-elected councilman by 48 votes on 3 August 1936 and still President of the City Council - he called the special meeting of 14 August to order in that capacity. In 1936 he was given charge of negotiating the changes the council wanted in the Eastern Shore Public Service Company's lighting and power contracts (3 June), seconded the resolution signing the five-year street-lighting contract (9 June), voted aye on the resolution accepting the amended PWA grant (13 August), and moved the resolution paying the November bond interest out of the sewer construction fund (21 October). activeYears should read at least 1934-1938. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: still President of the City Council and still the man who moves the hard business. He offered the boardwalk assessment resolution of 19 January 1937 that put a price on every ocean-front lot in the town; he moved the permission for John Lambros to drive piling on 15 April and the permit itself on 3 May, carrying both two to one against W. Preston Laws; he moved the acceptance of the A. Stanley Mundy sewer contract on 30 April; he took the minutes himself at the meetings of 15 April and 7 June when the clerk was absent; he called the special meeting of 30 August 1937 to order as President and signed the McDermott time-extension resolution in that capacity; and he moved the award of the summer garbage contract. The Democratic Messenger of 12 August 1937 names a William Scott as co-owner, with Dan Trimper, of the marlin boat Bonnie Sprae; whether that is this William H. Scott is not established. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: role / activeYears: President of the Ocean City City Council, 1934–1935– → councilman and President of the Ocean City council to September 1938; City Attorney / Solicitor of Ocean City from 12 September 1938 — He sat as a councilman through the 1938 session, took the minutes himself on 4 April when the clerk was absent, and did not stand at the August election. On 12 September the incoming council named him City Attorney; the council's letterhead of 20 October 1938 prints 'WILLIAM H. SCOTT, Solicitor'. He appears through the rest of the year as 'City Attorney W. H. Scott', instructed to advertise the building-permit requirement and to prepare the new licence ordinance. — 1939 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: role / activeYears / bio: councilman, Ocean City → councilman, Ocean City; and city attorney of Ocean City 1939 - IF THE TWO ARE THE SAME MAN, WHICH IS NOT ESTABLISHED — A 'Wm. H. Scott' and 'Attorney W. H. Scott' is the city attorney of Ocean City throughout 1939 and is named at ten meetings. He was present at the bond bid opening of 23 May; he was instructed to prepare the garbage contract, to close the purchase of Elizabeth Powell's six lots by the north pump station, to advise on the town's rights over William Bunting's proposed dock, to prepare the licence ordinance for the June sitting, to advise whether the council could rebate a bicycle licence (it could not), to prepare the artesian-well contract, and he read Mrs. V. E. Landon's boardwalk-injury letters into the record. The campaign already holds a William H. Scott as a councilman of the same town. SAME NAME, SAME SMALL TOWN, DIFFERENT OFFICE - it is likely one man who moved from the council to the town's legal work, and it is possible they are two. NO NEW PERSON RECORD WAS CREATED, DELIBERATELY, because creating one would silently assert that they are two men, and merging them silently would assert that they are one. What the merge should do is extend the existing record with the 1939 attorneyship and record the identification as unresolved.
In the record (23)
1936 · 1936-02-18
Twenty-four meetings, four elected men and a clerk - and no meeting at all in January or April
The Mayor and City Council of Ocean City met twenty-four times in 1936: twice in February, once in March, once in May, five times in June, once in July, four times in August, three in September, twice in October, four in November and once in December. There is no January meeting and no April meeting on the record. The year opens on Tuesday 18 February with the reading of the minutes of 27 December 1935, the night the sewer contract was let, and closes at nine o'clock on 29 December. The whole government was Mayor W. Thomas Elliott; Councilmen William H. Scott, president of the council, W. Preston Laws and Dr. F. J. Townsend; J. M. Mumford as clerk, secretary and treasurer; and Edmond Johnson as solicitor - the four names printed on the town's letterhead of 1 September 1936. Ten of the twenty-four meetings turned on the sewer or the boardwalk. The first meeting of the year lasted fifty minutes and decided two things: to wait for better weather before repairing the boardwalk, and that the peddlers' ordinance the town already had was sufficient.
W. Thomas ElliottW. Preston LawsJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-06-09
Ocean City never held the electric-plant referendum it won in Annapolis - in June 1936 it signed a five-year contract with the private company instead
Chapter 471 of the Acts of 1935 had authorised Ocean City to build and operate a municipal electric light plant and to borrow $150,000 for it, subject to a referendum for which the act fixed no date. Across twenty-six meetings in 1935 the council never selected one, and in 1936 the question came back not as a plant but as a price. On 2 June 1936 'Mr. Mitchell & Blake of Electric Light Co.' appeared before the council with a proposition for street lighting on a five-year contract showing a reduction of about $375 yearly after changing from 60 to 100 candle-power lamps, together with a one-year power rate. The council decided to consider it before signing; on 3 June, with the engineer Clark Gardner present, it examined the contracts for lights and power, decided to ask for some changes, and put William H. Scott in charge of seeing the electric people. On 9 June, W. Preston Laws moving and Scott seconding, it resolved 'that Contract be signed for Lighting Streets with "The Eastern Shore Public Service Company of Md" for five (5) Years since they had made the changes requested in meeting of June 3rd. Also that Power Contract be Executed for one (1) Year Contract listed as Schedule #9.' The municipal lights for the Fire House were not to be charged for. No referendum was ever called, no bonds were issued, and no municipal plant was built. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: The five-year term did not survive 1937. On 1 June 1937 the council 'agreed to sign contract if changed to one year' for the town's own lighting, and on 29 June, when Cecil Blake and two others came to ask that the power contract for the two sewer pumping stations and the disposal plant be signed for five years, 'Council agreed to sign contract for 1 year and contract was Executed on a 1 year basis.' Ocean City refused a five-year power contract twice in four weeks in the same year it took delivery of a plant that ran on electricity.
This is the answer the water-light-and-sewer thread has been waiting two years for. Ocean City went to Annapolis for a power station and came home with a better tariff. The credible threat of building your own plant was worth $375 a year and five years of certainty - which is the whole municipal-utility argument of the 1930s compressed into one council minute.
Eastern Shore Public Service CompanyW. Preston LawsClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-06-26
Ocean City was still borrowing $2,000 at ninety days to meet its own bond coupon in 1936
On 26 June 1936, five days before its bond coupon fell due, the council resolved 'that City Borrow of Exchange & Savings Bank $2,000.00 on 90 day note and borrow of Ocean City Bank enough to Care for our Coupon due July 1st.' In October, on William H. Scott's resolution seconded by Dr. Townsend, it sent the Federal Reserve Bank a check for $1,220.00 of interest due on 1 November on the $61,000 of sewerage bonds, drawn out of the sewer construction fund, and paid off $2,000 of bonds from its account in the Snow Hill bank. At the end of the year the town's books showed $27,385.67 of uncollected taxes and water rents running back to 1932 and $7,532.88 of cash in the Bank of Ocean City.
Bank of Ocean CityExchange and Savings Bank of Berlin
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-08-03
Ocean City's whole 1936 town election was forty-eight votes, cast between two and six on an August Monday, with nobody running against anybody
A special town election was held on Monday 3 August 1936 in the magistrate's office 'for Purpose of Electing one person for Mayor and three persons for Councilmen to serve two Years from second Monday of September 1936.' The polls were open from two o'clock until six. The returns filed with the clerk by the judges - Horace H. Richardson, S. J. Quillin and E. P. Calhoun - were: W. Thomas Elliott for Mayor, 48 votes; W. Preston Laws for Councilman, 48; Dr. F. J. Townsend, 48; W. H. Scott, 48. 'No other Votes were Cast.' The four were sworn in for two years by Magistrate Ralph B. Parsons at the regular meeting of 8 September. Nine months earlier the same electorate - property owners assessed with and owning $100 of town property for a year, under Chapter 45 of the Acts of 1935 - had turned out 105 voters to decide the sewer bonds by 104 to 1.
Forty-eight men re-elected a government that was halfway through building a sewer and six weeks from losing the boardwalk. The sewer had drawn more than twice the turnout: in this town money on the ballot brought people out and offices did not.
W. Thomas ElliottW. Preston Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-08-13
Washington raised Ocean City's sewer grant from $49,909 to $56,659, and the town accepted the amendment as Resolution No. 7
On 8 August 1936 the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works wrote to the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City over the signature of E. W. Clark, offering to amend the contract created by the town's acceptance of 17 October 1935 by striking the figures '$49,909' and inserting '$56,659', on condition that the applicant first deposit $8,250 in the construction account, 'or such other amount as may be necessary to complete the Project'. The Messenger had the news first: on Thursday 6 August Congressman T. Alan Goldsborough telegraphed the paper, 'Ocean City sewer project has been approved by President Roosevelt for an increase of the grant to $56,669. This sum will be sufficient to complete the Ocean City project.' The Mayor and City Council convened in special session on 13 August with William H. Scott, President, in the chair and none absent; W. Preston Laws proposed Resolution No. 7 accepting the amendment, Dr. F. J. Townsend seconded it, and Laws, Townsend and William H. Scott voted aye with none voting nay. A further certified extract of a special meeting of 14 August was prepared for Washington.
$56,659 in the federal document; the Messenger printed $56,669
Federal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Preston LawsT. Alan Goldsborough
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-01-19
Seven weeks after Ordinance No. 55 the council put a figure on every ocean-front lot: $369.57 for fifty feet of twenty-four-foot boardwalk
On Tuesday evening 19 January 1937 Councilman W. H. Scott offered a resolution 'that Atlantic Ave. properties be assessed for Cost of Board walk as follows' and then read the town, lot by lot, down the whole ocean front. Two rates ran through the list, and they are the width of the walk in front of the door. Where the new walk was twenty-four feet wide the charge was $369.57 for a fifty-foot lot - $7.3914 a running foot; where it was sixteen feet the charge was $257.83 for fifty feet, $5.1566 a foot. Ernest E. Purnell, the Lizzie R. Hearn estate, Mollie E. Bassett, Frank Nikirk, the H. C. Spitzler estate and E. K. Wilson each paid $369.57 on fifty feet; the Del-Mar-Va Mortgage Company $739.14 on a hundred; Mrs. Layfette Johnson $1,108.71 on a hundred and fifty; the largest single charge on the roll, $1,546.98, fell on three hundred feet held by what the clerk wrote as the 'Dominican School'. Dr. F. J. Townsend, who was sitting as a councilman, was assessed twice on his own account. Dr. Townsend seconded, 'vote was unanimous', and the secretary was 'instructed to send bills for walk fronts as it was completed.' On 19 March the council went further and authorised the Mayor 'to borrow enough money to settle for Board walk when needed' - the town would front the cash and collect from the owners afterwards.
The 1936 pass left the boardwalk story on a promise: $7 a foot on 7,700 feet, owners who had organised to refuse, and no way to know whether anyone was ever billed. This is the bill. It is $7.39 a foot, not $7, it is itemised by name, and the vote to send it out was unanimous.
Ocean City BoardwalkFrancis J. TownsendW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-02-08
Ocean City borrowed its own $8,250 share of the sewer by issuing eight more thousand-dollar bonds at 4 per cent
'Whereas, in addition to funds granted and loaned to Mayor and City Council of Ocean City by the United States for the construction of sewers and disposal plant at Ocean City under P.W.A. Project No. Md. 1065-R, the municipality must furnish the sum of eight thousand two hundred fifty dollars ($8250.00)' - so on 8 February 1937 the council resolved to borrow $8,000 on the full faith and credit of the town and to issue 'eight negotiable interest bearing coupon bonds ... said bonds to be Nos. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69 of the issue known as "Sewerage Bonds", to be in the denomination of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) each, to be dated November 1, 1935, to bear interest at the rate of 4% per annum payable semi-annually on May 1st and November 1st of each year until maturity.' They were to be 'sold privately at par plus accrued interest.' W. Preston Laws moved it; the vote was unanimous and the Mayor approved it.
Federal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Preston LawsW. Thomas ElliottFrancis J. TownsendJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-26
The sewage plant ran eight months late because the contractor could not get cinders and brick, and because the Board of Health made him keep sewage out of the water mains
A typed resolution of 26 April 1937 sets out the whole history of the delay in the contractor's favour. 'M. J. McDermott under contract NO.2 started work on August 26th 1936 Docket Md.1065-2R Sewerage Treatment Plant and on Jan 4th 1937 time extended to April 26th 1937.' Two reasons are given for a further extension: '#1 Inability to obtain certain materials to meet specifications (cinders, brick, etc.)'; and '#2 - It became necessary, because of stipulation by the State Board of Health, to have the Roberts Filter Mfg. Co., Sub Contractor, design and submit for approval certain mechanical equipment to prevent the backing up of sewerage into the city water lines.' The council extended the time to 26 May 1937 and 'waive[d] the liquidated damages specified in said contract relative to failure to complete the work in time', directing that 'the State Director be advised of this action'. It was signed by Mayor W. Thomas Elliott, by William H. Scott as President of the City Council, and certified by J. M. Mumford.
A resort that had just voted 104 to 1 to put sewers in the sand was, eighteen months later, still waiting on a delivery of cinders - and on a Philadelphia filter company to invent a way of stopping the sewage getting into the drinking water.
M. J. McDermottRoberts Filter Manufacturing CompanyMaryland State Board of HealthFederal Emergency Administration of Public WorksM. J. McDermottW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-30
Ocean City accepted its intercepting sewers from A. Stanley Mundy & Co. on 30 April 1937
At a meeting in the Municipal Building on 30 April 1937 the Mayor and City Council unanimously adopted a Resolution of Acceptance declaring that they had 'accepted as satisfactory - subject to prior acceptance by the Consulting Engineer - a system of Intercepting Sewers and Appurtenances recently constructed at Ocean City, Maryland, by the A. Stanley Mundy Company, Inc., of Woodbridge, New Jersey, under Contract No. 1, PWA Docket No. Md.1065-R', and directed the Clerk to notify the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. W. H. Scott moved it, Dr. F. J. Townsend seconded, and the motion carried. The council had signed Mundy's contract on 27 December 1935 and had given him a thirty-day extension in 1936 for 'the unusually arduous winter'; sixteen months later the pipe was in the ground and signed off.
A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.Federal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Thomas ElliottFrancis J. TownsendJohn M. MumfordClark Gardner
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1937 · 1937-05-03
Three meetings, a public hearing and a 2-1 vote: how John Lambros got permission to put fourteen apartments and a soda fountain on Atlantic Avenue
On 15 April 1937 Councilman Scott moved 'that Permission be granted John Lambros to drive piling for a building 45 X 96 on Lot #9 Block #5 North', the building to be kept back of the present Atlantic Avenue building and porch lines, 'it being understood that the building to be erected is not yet Approved for lack of Sufficient information Nor are the purposes for which the building is to be used approved.' Townsend and Scott voted aye, Laws no. On 26 April the council set a hearing for Friday evening and the secretary notified the neighbours by name - the Shoreham Hotel, Percy Hickling, R. E. and Bertha Rouse, Chas. Seybold, Dale Showell, Mrs. Fooks, Elsie Seeger Barton, Fred Wolf for the Wheatton estate, L. E. Neal Jr. and Hattie Cropper. At the hearing on 30 April, Frank W. Truitt 'spoke opposing the restaurant, on behalf of Wheatton & Barton Property'; Mrs. H. J. Cropper spoke for granting the permit; letters against came from L. E. Neal Jr. and R. E. Rouse. A new application was then filed 'stating That Building was for 2 upper floors for 14 Apartments lower floor for Restaurant Soda Fountain, novelty store, notions & Confections are only business to be operated on the premises.' On 3 May the permit was granted, Scott and Townsend yes, Laws no. Two months later Lambros was assessed $8,000 on personal property, the largest such figure on the 1937 book.
The Shoreham Hotel / Shenanigan's Irish PubJohn LambrosFrancis J. TownsendW. Preston LawsF. W. TruittHarry J. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-01
Hauling Ocean City's summer garbage cost $24.50 a day; hauling it after Labor Day cost $7.50
Bids for hauling garbage 'beginning June 16 and ending Sept. 16 inclusive' were opened on 1 June 1937: Geo Jones $34.00 per day, Gardner Ewell $35.00, L. J. Clark $27.00, C. P. Cropper $24.50. On W. H. Scott's motion the contract went to C. P. Cropper at $24.50 a day. On 7 September the council opened bids for the rest of the year - George Jones $7.50 a day, C. P. Cropper $9.00 - took no action that night because it 'wanted to consider the bids until Friday Sept 10th', and on 13 September awarded it to George Jones at $7.50. The town's rubbish cost it more than three times as much in July as in October, which is the clearest single measure of the size of the season the campaign has for 1937.
Clifford P. CropperGeorge Jones
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-16
The council refused to grant anyone a taxi franchise in 1937, licensed a bicycle-hire man, and told the fireworks dealers the ordinance would be enforced
'Taxi Service was discussed and on motion by W. H. Scott, Seconded by W. P. Laws council refuses to grant any franchise.' In the same sitting of 16 June 1937 the 'Application of Harold I. Schneiderer for to rent Bikes was O.K.'; the council 'decided to enforce the fireworks ordinance & Secretary instructed to notify all dealers of this section'; an unnumbered ordinance was passed; and the council granted the Fire Company $50 towards their expenses to Easton, where the Maryland State Firemen's Association was holding its convention. Earlier in the month the council had also turned away a trailer park: the secretary was to tell Mr. Duncan Jr. 'they did not look kindly to any place north of Dorchester St.', though the railroad lot south of Worcester Street might be considered if the neighbours had no objection and the sanitary condition could be met.
Ocean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentMaryland State Firemen's AssociationW. Preston LawsHarold I. Schneiderer
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-24
The rebuilt boardwalk cost $38,945.63 — and the ocean-front owners paid $17,377.92 of it, less than half
The Messenger's annual survey of Ocean City's assessable basis, 24 June 1937, printed the settled account: 'the new Ocean City boardwalk, which cost a total of $38,945.63. The boardwalk cost was divided between city taxpayers whose properties lie adjacent to the walk and the administration. Taxpayers paid $17,377.92 while the city paid the remaining cost of $21,567.71.' That is 44.6 per cent to the assessed owners and 55.4 per cent to the town. Three figures had been in the air: the paper's own $100,000 in March for the whole repair bill; $23,000 from an unnamed source; and Mayor Elliott's revised $50,000, published on 18 March after he had 'figur[ed] detailed costs of the project, including discounts on material saved'. The final number is well under all of them, and it is a long way under what Ordinance No. 55 contemplated: $7 a running foot on about 7,700 feet is roughly $54,000, and the assessment roll of 19 January charged $7.39 a foot. The same article gives the town's assessable basis as $2,961,494, up $150,000 in the year and up from $800,000 in 1922, with the tax rate at $1 per $100.
Ordinance No. 55 was written to make the owners pay for the boardwalk. In the event the owners paid for a bit under half of it and the town quietly picked up the rest — which is the oldest arrangement in Ocean City and the one the town has never stopped renegotiating.
Ocean City BoardwalkW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. MumfordW. Preston LawsFrancis J. Townsend
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-07-13
Elliott Bros. were given leave to dike their land north of First Street and dig a basin in it
The council reconvened after adjourning on 13 July 1937 and, on Laws's motion seconded by Scott, 'Elliott Bros. were granted permit to dike their land between North 1st Street & North 2nd Street and dig a basin as outlined by plans prepared by Gardner & Dallas and permit was O.K.' The town's consulting engineers, fresh from the sewer, were drawing plans to turn bay marsh at the north end of the built-up town into a private basin - the same shape of work, on a private account, that the fishing harbour at West Ocean City had been doing on the public one since 1936.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-07-13
Ocean City held its tax rate at a dollar on the hundred for a fourth straight year, and exactly one taxpayer turned up to complain
On 29 June 1937 the council listed the year's new and increased assessments and sent notice to every owner on it of a meeting on 13 July 'for to hear any complaints of why the property should not be assessed as listed for year of 1937 taxes'. Among them: Wallace & Jarman, improvements on restaurant and apartments, $3,000; S. Dodd Shuster, bungalow and garage, $4,000; Clarence Carey, dance hall, $1,000; Samuel and Belle Adams, house, $4,800; John Lambros, personal, $8,000 - the largest personal assessment on the page; W. C. Pool, floating houses on lots, $100 each, $600 in all; 'Royalton (Kelly)', personal, $2,000; Rudolph Dolle, body shop, $650; Harry J. Cropper, work shop, $1,000; and Elizabeth Hufford's apartments raised from $3,000 to $4,800. A shorter list of property 'marked off for 1937' cut the Jester, Kelly, Magel, Mumford and Massey books. On 13 July, 'Sam Ayers was only one appeared asking for reduction of 100 on personal in small house and reduction was made.' The council then made 'tax levy for 1937 ... 10.00 Thousand' - one dollar on the hundred, unanimously, the same rate it had held in 1934, 1935 and 1936. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: And then it did not. The run of four years at a dollar on the hundred ended on 21 June 1938, when the Ocean City council passed the 1938 levy at 85 cents per $100 on Dr. Townsend's motion seconded by Preston Laws - a cut of fifteen per cent, after a discussion on 31 May of cutting twenty that reached no decision.
W. Preston LawsJohn LambrosHarry J. CropperRudolph DolleW. C. PoolClarence CareyEthel Kelley
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-09-09
Ocean City voted 275 to 97 for Worcester Street as the landing of its new highway bridge, and Congress had already written the choice into federal law
By an Act of the first session of the 75th Congress the State Roads Commission of Maryland was authorised 'to construct, maintain and operate a free highway bridge and approaches thereto across Sinepuxent Bay, at Worcester Street, or South Division Street or Wicomico Street, in Worcester County, Maryland, at Ocean City' - and the Act further provided that if the town's voters designated a preference for some other point, 'then such designation shall be the point fixed for the building of said bridge.' The council called a special meeting on 30 August 1937 and, on F. J. Townsend's motion seconded by W. Preston Laws, resolved 3-0 to put the question to the voters on 9 September, polls at the Municipal Building from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., ballot listing Worcester, Wicomico, South Division and North Division Streets with a blank line for a write-in. The judges of election were Wm. G. Rounds, Edwin P. Calhoun and Edward Kurtz, and the result the clerk entered was: Worcester 275, North Division 83, Wicomico 7, South Division 6, North 1st Street 1. Worcester Street is where the bridge was built and where the causeway still lands.
A town of a few hundred voters was handed, by federal statute, the power to overrule Congress on where its own bridge would touch the island - and used it to confirm the obvious.
Maryland State Roads CommissionW. Thomas ElliottFrancis J. TownsendW. Preston LawsJohn M. MumfordWilliam G. RoundsEdwin P. CalhounEdward Kurtz
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1937 · 1937-12-14
The town's own online minute archive lists 21 Ocean City council meetings for 1937; the minute pages themselves record 24
The IQM2 calendar returns 21 meetings for 1 January to 31 December 1937, each with exactly one document, all of them Type=15 summary minutes, 21 PDFs carrying 32 scanned page images between them. Reading those 32 images turns up three sittings that have no calendar entry at all: a regular meeting on 25 May 1937, known only from a letter to the Exchange and Savings Bank quoting a resolution 'passed at our regular meeting of May 25th 1937'; a meeting on 13 September 1937 that awarded the winter garbage contract, written into the same page as the 9 September election result; and a meeting on 23 November 1937 that awarded the comfort station contracts, written in behind the minute of 16 November. The council did not meet at all between 13 July and 30 August, or in October, or in December before the 14th. Ocean City's councillors through 1937 were W. Preston Laws, Dr. F. J. Townsend and William H. Scott, with W. Thomas Elliott as mayor, J. M. Mumford as clerk and Edmond Johnson as solicitor - the same five men, unchanged, as in 1936.
The archive is an index to the minute book, not a copy of it. Three meetings out of twenty-four are invisible to anyone who trusts the calendar - which is a nine per cent error rate on a source this campaign is about to run through ninety more years.
W. Thomas ElliottW. Preston LawsFrancis J. TownsendJohn M. MumfordEdmond H. Johnson
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1938 · 1938-05-31
Ocean City's fight for the county's liquor profits ended in a cheque, and the lawyer who won it charged $915 and was mayor by September
In 1937 Ocean City, Berlin and Pocomoke went after the Worcester County Liquor Control Board's profits and a court took possession of $25,517.55. On 26 May 1938 the council met in special session and unanimously adopted a resolution appointing Edmond H. Johnson 'its true and lawful attorney for it and in its name to examine the Audit of the books of the Liquor Control Board of Worcester County for the Fiscal Year Ending April 30, 1938 and if in the opinion of said attorney the said Audit shall be found Correct to receive from said Liquor Control Board the amount due', to give a receipt and release, and the payment was to be 'a full and Complete satisfaction of any and all claims which said Mayor & City Council of Ocean City might have for the fiscal year Ending April 30, 1938, to the liquor profits'. Five days later, on 31 May, 'Check was delivered by Attorney Edmund Johnson for the Licor money with bill for legal service of 915.00 and check was drawn to pay Mr Johnson.' The town's share is not stated in the minute; the lawyer's fee is. Nine weeks later he was elected mayor.
Worcester County Liquor Control BoardEdmond H. JohnsonFrancis J. Townsend
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-09-12
The new mayor of Ocean City was sworn in with a bouquet of flowers and a wish for a 'Successful and Harmony Administration'
'The new Mayor & Council met Promptly at 8 O'Clock P.M. and were sworn in by Magistrate Stephen J. Quillen. Soon as the Ceremony was completed the New Mayor Ed[mond] Johnson was presented with a large Boquet of Flowers by several ladies and gentlemen who expressed their desire to Mayor Johnson and members of Council for a Successful and Harmony Administration.' The councilmen sworn were Clifford P. Cropper, E. Raymond Bounds and Harold J. Rayne. Cropper was unanimously elected President of the Council and Rayne Treasurer; J. M. Mumford was reappointed City Clerk to June 1939; and William H. Scott, who had sat as a councilman under Elliott, was named City Attorney - so the outgoing solicitor became mayor and an outgoing councilman became solicitor. The council's printed letterhead by 20 October reads: EDMOND H. JOHNSON, Mayor; WILLIAM H. SCOTT, Solicitor; J. M. MUMFORD, Sec.-Treas.; COUNCILMEN: CLIFFORD P. CROPPER, Pres.; HAROLD J. RAYNE, Sec.-Treas.; E. RAYMOND BOUNDS.
Edmond H. JohnsonClifford P. CropperE. Raymond BoundsHarold J. RayneStephen J. QuillenJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-12-06
The town that had burned in 1925 finally banned the wooden roof, in December 1938, after catching builders replacing shingles in defiance of it
On 22 November 1938 Edward Evans's permit for a wood shingle roof was refused outright and the secretary told to notify him. Then: 'A discussion was had on the numerous Shingle Roofs being renewed against City Demand so a new Ordinance was ordered prepared and Secretary instructed to write the builders that they must secure Building permit before beginning any building and no wood shingles would be allowed for Roofs.' The city attorney, W. H. Scott, was instructed to put notices in the county paper that permits must be obtained before starting building. On 6 December the minute records simply: 'Minutes of Nov 22 were approved and Ordinance passed regarding future Roofs of Buildings.' Ocean City lost most of its downtown to fire in 1925 and had been rebuilding in wood ever since; the ban arrived thirteen years later and arrived because the council noticed people were ignoring an instruction it had never actually enacted.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-12-06
West Ocean City came to look at the bridge plans in December 1938, and Ocean City's new council took no action and sent the plans back
Five months after the town's own ordinance gave the state North Division and Caroline Streets, the bridge was still being fought. On 22 November 1938 L. Franklin Purnell came before the council 'asking that City take immediate action asking for Another hearing on Bridge location by War Department', and the mayor and the city attorney were appointed to write the authorities 'to ascertain if any thing could be done'. On 6 December the plans themselves were on the table: 'Bridge plans were examined by many people and many were present from West Ocean City. Council took no action on the Bridge plans and secretary instructed to return plans to Engineers office as requested by them.' A room full of mainlanders, a set of federal plans, and a council that looked and did nothing.
Maryland State Roads CommissionL. Franklin PurnellEdmond H. Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-12-27
Ocean City ended 1938 threatening an injunction against a foundation four feet over the building line on the street it had just given the state
The council's last act of 1938 was a special meeting called by its president on the evening of 27 December. 'The Question of Mrs. L. M. Mumford building over the 8 ft Building Line on Phila. Ave. at Cor. of Caroline St. was discussed and Council notified that Secretary had notified Mrs. Mumford that they had located the foundation over the line by about 4 feet and required Mrs. Mumford to stop the building.' The Mumfords came before the council; Harold Rayne asked whether they could not build to the ordinance, 'as the City did not want to stop them from building and would like them to save time & money by Complying with the City Ordinance'; and 'After debating for some time the Council finally voted unanimously that the building could not go out 4 feet as started and if they did not move in the foundation the City would have to file an injunction and hold up the building.' The corner in question is Philadelphia Avenue at Caroline Street - one of the two streets the town had deeded to the State Roads Commission for the bridge approach in June, on the avenue it had deeded for the Coastal Highway in July.
Harold J. RayneClifford P. CropperEdmond H. Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1939 · 1939-10-24
Ocean City contracted for four new artesian wells in October 1939 and deliberately took the cheaper bid without the guarantee
Bids for drilling new wells at the north pump station were opened on 24 October. M. A. Pentz of Denton bid $3.00 a foot for a 6-inch well and $14.00 for screen. The Artesian Well Drilling Co. of Philadelphia bid $3.25 a foot on the well and $13.00 a foot on screen, guaranteeing 1,000 gallons a minute on four wells. The Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc. of St Michaels bid $3.40 a foot with screens at $10.75, on a guarantee of 1,000 gallons a minute - or, alternatively, $2.35 a foot on well and $10.75 on screen 'for each foot not guaranteed'. On C. P. Cropper's motion, seconded by Bounds, 'Contract was awarded Shannahan on non guaranteed Basis'. The specification had gone out on 3 October: four wells to supply 250 gallons a minute each. — 1940 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The four wells contracted in October 1939 on the cheaper, non-guaranteed bid were not enough. On 15 January 1940 the council unanimously resolved 'that the well contractor drive a fifth well to supply a sufficient quantity of water to the water tank at the south end of the town.' The cost then drove the tax rate: the minute of 8 July 1940 raises the rate to $1.20 partly because 'the cost of the new wells for north Pump Station would have to be carried over for 1940' and notes had been given to pay for them.
The council took a dollar and five cents a foot off the price by giving up the guarantee that the wells would produce water. In a town whose budget sheet that summer showed three years of uncollected water rent, that is not thrift so much as a bet.
Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc.Clifford P. CropperE. Raymond Bounds
Source · checked 2026-08-11