Willie Ludlam
An Ocean City property owner of the early 1940s who turns up twice in 1941. In March the town clerk posted him a notice of the hearing on Cullin S. Jenkins's application for a store and apartment building, because his ground lay immediately north of the lot; he is one of twenty neighbours on that list. In December the council named him, with Gladys Jackson, to the Red Cross department of its new home defence council.
In the record (2)
1941 · 1941-06-03
Ocean City ran its building permits by written notice to every neighbour and a public hearing, and the town clerk kept the tick-list — the surviving 1941 papers show the procedure working twice.
The town had no zoning ordinance in 1941 — the council had only begun to talk about one in 1940 — but it had a procedure, and 1941 is the year the paperwork survives. On 15 March 1941 the clerk sent out a printed notice: 'The Council Will Consider the application of Cullin S. Jenkins for building permit for store and apartment building 40 by 70 ft located on lot No. 5 block No. 3 adjoining property of Chas. Parker Jr. on the South and Willie Ludlam on the North. Hearing will be at 730 O'clock on Friday evening March Twenty First.' Below it the clerk listed the twenty people he posted it to — Jarman & Timmons, Willie Ludlam, Rata Tyndall, Harriet Dashiell, Floyd Watson, Francis Cloud, Laura McColley, Wm. & Carrie Turner, Chas. Parker Jr., Lillian D. Purnell, Charles S. Powell, R. B. Jenson, Irma K. Mumford, L. Franklin Purnell, S. J. Quillin, Clara Powell, Etta & James Conner, Willimina Harris, Chas. T. Jackson — and ticked or annotated them by hand as the replies came in, one of them marked with an objection. At the hearing on 21 March the council heard the property owners who came, and granted the permit. On 3 June the same machinery is described in the round: on Wm. Dale's application for a filling station on the John Jones property, with Mrs Samuel Quillin objecting and Win Wallace not, 'the Council stated there were thirteen property owners notified and only two appeared with only one objection so motion was made... that permit be granted.' Two appearances out of thirteen notices was, to this council, a mandate.
J. M. MumfordL. Franklin PurnellClifford P. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
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 PeacockFrancis J. TownsendArchie DavisL. B. CropperRobert AllenJ. M. MumfordDaniel Trimper, Sr.W. Preston LawsF. W. TruittEdward M. ScottWilliam H. Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11