Industrial Pioneer and Advocate of Cremation

MARENTIUS THAMS: 1836–1907

Industrial Pioneer and Advocate of Cremation

Marentius Thams was an energetic merchant and industrial entrepreneur from Orkanger, and the first person buried in the Cathedral Cemetery whose remains had been cremated.

Ole Kristian Marentius Thullin Thams was a dynamic businessman and industrial pioneer who lived at Bårdsgård in Orkanger. Born in the timber town of Fredrikstad in 1836, he established himself in Orkdal during the 1860s. In addition to operating sawmills and exporting timber, he manufactured prefabricated wooden houses that were shipped to destinations around the world. He also organized the export of Norwegian salmon to Great Britain.

Thams died on 26 July 1907 at his hunting lodge, Fjeldheim, in Meldal. He was eventually buried in the family plot at the Cathedral Cemetery, though not immediately after his death.

On the front of his gravestone, the abbreviation “R¹.ST.O.O.” indicates that he was a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav. Another inscription on the back explains why it took some time before he was laid to rest. There, in large letters, it is recorded that Thams’s body was “cremated at the Stockholm Crematorium on 31 July 1907,” five days after his death.

His remains were probably transported by horse and carriage from Fjeldheim to Orkanger, by boat to Trondheim, and then by train via Storlien and Sundsvall to Stockholm. Sweden had established crematoria before Norway did.

At the end of the nineteenth century, cremation was a controversial and highly debated issue in Norway and elsewhere in Europe. Opposition was strong, particularly within Christian communities. Among the advocates were the author Camilla Collett and the composer Edvard Grieg, both of whom were members of the Norwegian Cremation Society (Norsk Ligbrændingsforening), founded in 1889.

Camilla Collett was cremated in Stockholm in 1895. At that time, cremation was still prohibited in Norway. In 1898, however, the Norwegian Parliament passed the Cremation Act, making the practice legal.

Norway’s first crematorium opened in Bergen in 1907, and Edvard Grieg became the sixth person to be cremated there. Kristiania (now Oslo) received its first crematorium in 1909, while Trondheim followed in 1919.