Before President Biden, Rehoboth had Commissioner Trump

A few months ago, I wrote a story about the closure of Quillen’s Hardware. The store had been around for decades and was originally located on Rehoboth Avenue. I wasn’t sure exactly when it opened or how long it had been in the original location, so I did some digging in a few areas.

One of those areas was the search function on Rehoboth Beach’s legislative portal because the city has a bunch of minutes from old meetings. I never found that exact date, but I did come across a set of minutes from Saturday, April 9, 1938. In those minutes, there's a Commissioner Trump in attendance, who makes and seconds a few motions. For obvious reasons, I found it amusing that long before there was a President Joe Biden, Rehoboth had a commissioner with the last name of Trump, even if, as far as I can tell, he has no connection to the sitting president.

Commissioner Trump’s first name is never given in those minutes. I reached out to the city for more information. After filling out a Freedom of Information Act form, I was told his full name was J. Sanderson Trump. He was elected to a two-year term as city commissioner July 10, 1937. His first recorded meeting in that role took place Aug. 7, 1937, and his final meeting was July 22, 1939. He lost his bid for re-election in the municipal election held July 8, 1939.

With information from the city in hand, I did some more digging. I found out that Trump and his wife Hannah lived in the Drexel Hill area near Philadelphia, and he was a fire insurance salesman. I also learned he faced issues 90 years ago that aren’t too dissimilar from ones Rehoboth’s commissioners face today.

Trump ran for office because he was in favor of keeping Willard H. Johnson, the city’s first city manager, after some commissioners wanted Johnson fired for not cooperating with commissioners over water rates. Ultimately, Johnson was let go and Trump lost re-election a short time later. Trump even threatened to resign from his position as commissioner after a vote to dismiss Johnson, but decided not to.

“In the interest of fair play, he should not desert the ship while the storm is still raging,” said Trump, in an article in the Wilmington News Journal’s evening edition of Oct. 22, 1938.

Trump was against the idea of men bathing topless on the beach. In July 1937, the Wilmington Morning News reported that Rehoboth would continue to prohibit topless bathers after considering a change to code that would have allowed it. Trump, who had just been elected, but not officially taken office, was the only member of the public quoted in the story. He thought Rehoboth was a family resort and he could find no reason to imitate the larger resorts that permitted men to appear only in trunks.

After losing re-election in 1939, the Trumps remained in Rehoboth until 1944. The personal pages of a Wilmington News Journal’s evening edition from May 6, 1944, said the couple was “occupying their cottage which they recently sold, and the new owners are expected to arrive shortly.”

Hannah Trump 

Hannah Trump was in the paper more often than her husband, but it was in the society pages of the local publications. Throughout much of the 1930s and into the mid-1940s, there were notices saying that the Trumps would be at their Rehoboth Beach cottage for the summer or for a couple weeks. The notices often include little tidbits of information related to Hannah holding a luncheon, hosting guests or playing bridge, oftentimes all three.

Nothing exemplifies Hannah’s social obligations more than a benefit party she held for the Rehoboth Beach firemen in the ballroom of the Hotel Henlopen. The featured guest of honor? Her Pekingese dog, Mingy, whose life had been saved by firemen when the Trump residence in Philadelphia was severely damaged by fire.

A passage from the Wilmington News Journal’s evening edition of Aug. 7, 1939, reads, “The features of the party are attracting wide interest. An 8-year-old Pekingese dog, owned by Mrs. J. Sanderson Trump of Lansdowne, Pa., will be on display as the living exponent of the service of volunteer firemen who saved its life from the Trumps’ burning home. The other feature will be door prizes ‘for men only’ to encourage the attendance of the male element. A large advance ticket sale is reported by the young women of the town, both among men and women.”

A sign-of-the-times observation – Hannah was almost always referred to as Mrs. J. Sanderson Trump. In fact, her death notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer Nov. 24 1956, and multiple death notices for her husband when he died May 2, 1957, were the only instances I could find when her first name was used.

Joke of the week

International Left-Handed Awareness Day is Wednesday, Aug. 13. I’m not left-handed, but my brother is. Growing up, he received a number of left-handed-related presents from relatives. The thing is, there are not that many, which is why two years in a row he got the same book about life as a lefty from our grandmother. Here’s a joke about being left-handed. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

Q: Why did the left-handed person get such good grades in art class?

A: Because they were always drawing on the right side of the brain.