The Ghost Town of Tams

The New Salem Baptist Church stands as the sole remaining structure in the now-deserted town of Tams, West Virginia.

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The New Salem Baptist Church stands as the sole remaining structure in the now-deserted town of Tams, West Virginia.

Founded in 1909 by Major William Purviance Tams, Jr., Tams was a company town established for the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company. The town was segregated, with distinct areas for Caucasian, Black, and immigrant residents. It featured two Baptist churches for the white and black communities and a Catholic church for immigrants.

Major Tams was known for his comparatively humane treatment of residents. His community was distinguished by several amenities rare for coal towns at the time: a miners’ bathhouse (the first in West Virginia), the Golden Gate Theatre (the first opera house in a U.S. coal town), and a modern recreation building with a dance pavilion, gymnasium, reading room, and swimming pool.

In 1911, Tams’ company pioneered a reduction in the workday to nine hours in the region, which was further reduced to eight hours by World War I. The company also paid its miners wages higher than the standard union rate.

Life in Tams, as in many company towns, was intertwined with the company itself. By the 1960s, Major Tams’ approach, prioritizing fair wages and stable living conditions (though wages were often paid in company scrip), was seen as outdated. The Gulf Smokeless Coal Company merged into Winding Gulf Collaries in 1955 and later became part of Westmoreland Coal, a larger conglomerate. As commuting from nearby towns became more common, Tams began to lose its population, leading to near abandonment by the mid-1970s.

Major Tams passed away in 1977 in the very community he had established, his life mirroring the rise and gradual decline of the Winding Gulf coalfield.

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