James Tams, president of Greenwood Pottery, dies

JAS. TAMS DIES

AFTER NOTABLE

LIFE AS POTTER

Series of Illnesses and Operations

Ends Fatally for Oldest Ceramic

Manufacturer in the Country

James Tams, president of the [id=7268; Greenwood Pottery Company], and the oldest manufacturing potter in the United States in point of continuous activity in the trade, died this morning at 4:15 after a series of serious illnesses. He was in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

During recent years Mr. Tams has undergone a number of serious operations. These weakened his system and let to his death which was directly caused by asthma. Mr. Tams is survived by his wife and nine children. The children are: William, George, Arthur, Thomas, Blaine, Raymond, Mrs. Frank Gee, Mrs. Charles Zenker, and Mrs. Dr. H. P. Johnson of Allentown. There are also two brothers, William and Austin, two sisters, Sarah and Alice, and thirteen grandchildren.

The funeral will be Tuesday morning . . . [illegible text] . . . Avenue and will be private. There will be a solemn requiem high mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception at 10 o'clock to which the friends are invited. The body may be viewed at the home from 7 to 9 o'clock Monday evening. Interment under the direction of Murphy will be in Riverview Cemetery.

CAREER OF MR. TAMS.

Mr. Tams was born in Staffordshire, England, and came to this country with his father, William Tams, in 1861. The father took possession of an old carriage shop on the site of the present main plant of the Greenwood Pottery Company and it was here in a modest way that the first ware was turned out. With the elder Mr. Tams there was associated in the enterprise William Bannard. William Tams was a dipper and kiln firer by trade, having learned the work in England. Immediately after coming here and before starting in business for himself he worked in Young's pottery which was conducted on the site of the Willett's pottery, the present plant of the New Jersey China-Pottery Company. James Tams was also a kilnsman at Young's.

After spending some time working in the Greenwood plant, James Tams went to England in 1864. He married there, and in the following year he returned to Trenton. In the meantime his father had associated with him J. P. Stevens and Charles Brearley. It was for this firm that James Tams went to work in 1865. At the death of his father the following year, James Tams bought his stock, and the Greenwood Pottery was conducted by Brearley, Stevens & Tams.

With the advent of James Tams, new life was infused into the concern, and it was built up to be the country's leading factory of its kind in that period. William Tams had found it unprofitable to make bone china, as there was little or no protective tariff, but James Tams, the son, staked his all on the production of a ware that would lift this country to a materially higher plane in the pottery world. As soon as practicable, the manufacturing of the C. C. P. G. and white granite was discontinued at the Greenwood, and in its stead came forth the first of this country's vitrified ware. Jobbers refused to handle it, and Mr. Tams met discouragement on every side. He went personally to the hotels with his samples and finally induced the proprietors to take some of the ware on trial. The rest was easy, and before long the jobbers were glad to take it on. The two kilns of the plant were soon inadequate to supply the demand.

The Greenwood was also the first pottery to make fancy goods, vases and similar other articles in pottery not of a strictly utilitarian nature.

The six sons of Mr. Tams are now actively engaged in the work he laid out. William H. Tams, the eldest son, is vice president of the company and its general manager.

Many thousands of dollars have been invested in the clay deposits in this country largely upon the advice of Mr. Tams, to whom samples of the clay had been submitted for inspection. On the other hand, enthusiastic prospectors have been restrained by the advice of Mr. Tams from spending money in clay workings in which he had no faith. He has been the friend and adviser of many a rival manufacturer of pottery, who went to him sorely distressed over some problem which would have to be solved or work ruin for them.

Mr. Tams has had the pleasure of seeing a number of his former aides rise to positions of prominence. Former Mayor Welling G. Sickel was at one time a salesman for him. Dr. Charles P. Britton, head of the [id=7215; Star Porcelain Company], was formerly an office man at the Greenwood. Charles Wheelans, manager of the Monument Pottery, was also an attaché at the Greenwood. Richard Barlow, proprietor of Barlow's Hotel, started business life at the Greenwood.