Covington Dirickson Powell (1887-1954)

Mayoral portrait courtesy of berlinmd.gov

  A recent strange name discovery is Covington Dirickson Powell, who in the 1930s logged two terms as mayor of Berlin, Maryland in Worcester County. A lifelong Marylander, Powell was born on December 7, 1887, in Powellville, Wicomico County. Bestowed the unusual name Covington Dirickson upon his birth, Powell's middle name has variations in spelling, being given as Dirickson in his 1917 draft registration, and as Derrickson on findagrave.com and ancestry.com.

  Little information could be found on Powell's early life or education, and prior to WWI was employed as a railroad telegraph operator. He married ca. 1907 to Alberta Cecilia Burbage (1886-1984) to who he was wed until his death. The couple had two children, Ella Burbage Powell Lewis (1908-2005) and Roland Burbage Powell (1915-1976).

  In the early 1920s, he took employment with the E.D. Adkins Lumber Co. of Berlin, working first as a shipping clerk. He would advance to the position of general manager in 1926, serving in that capacity until his death nearly thirty years later. Powell entered city politics in 1934 when he announced his candidacy for Berlin mayor. With mayor Raymond Quillen declining renomination in 1934, Covington Powell was the only nominated candidate for mayor that year, and in May won the election, with only 30 votes being cast! During his first term, Powell served as a director in the Berlin Businessmen's Association and was reelected in 1936. The city's public sewer system was also installed during his tenure.

   In February 1938 Powell announced his intention to retire as mayor at the end of his term, citing his wanting to return to his business pursuits. The Salisbury Times noted that Powell had attended "every regular and special session of the city council" during his four years in office. 

  A longtime member of the Buckingham Presbyterian Church of Berlin, Powell was elected as a church elder in 1940, and in 1943 is recorded as the owner of the Powell Farm, a large poultry farm that suffered a catastrophic fire that year which claimed the lives of thousands of chicks. Covington Dirickson Powell died of heart failure at the Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury, Maryland on January 15, 1954, aged 66. His wife Alberta survived him by thirty years, and following her death at age 98 in 1984 was interred alongside him at the Buckingham Cemetery in Berlin.

From the Salisbury Daily Times, January 16, 1954.