The following was published in Clio’s Corner, a news letter written by Aristotle George Gazonas, John’s cousin.
John Adams could well be cited as the peripatetic businessman of Montgomery County, he’d been everywhere! But first he came to the United States after serving a youthful apprenticeship as a stone mason in Hellas. According to one shard of evidence John toiled on the structures of the 1st modern Olympiad of 1896 in Athens! Later he departed from Piraeus on the S. S. Geneva as a 15-year old and landed at New York City, Sept. 27, 1906 whence he immediately departed for Manchester, New Hampshire where there were many Kantsikiotoi from his Epirote village.
In 1910 we find John at 51 Fayette Street, Conshohocken rooming with fellow villagers: Nicholas A. Gazonas, George A. Gazonas and Constantinos Cotrobinas. They soon had a thriving candy store partnership but decided to split up, in 1913 brothers Nick and George setting up a shop at 5913 Market Street adjacent to the Coliseum Theater in Philadelphia.
John Adams and Constantinos Cotrobinas remained partners in the Conshohocken Candy Kitchen and soon expanded operations into Norristown. In 1915 John Adams was residing at 323 Cherry Street and in 1916 he acquired the Keystone Candy Company at 14 East Main Street from Peter Nemphos.
In 1918 he re-sold this property to the moneyed Nicholas S. Gazonas, just returned to the United States with his new bride, Agoritsa.
In 1917 Adams (with four partners) acquired the Lyric “Theater” a nickelodeon located at 37-39 East Main Street across from Strawberry Alley. The partners were kept busy in an attached confectionery shop until the Lyric was sold to Norristown’s movie moguls-the Sablosky family. The five would-be “Skouras” partners then split up: George J. Suflas and Gus Kotrob (note his new Anglicized name!) eventually moving to Bristol, Pa., the two Gazonas brothers moving to 78 West Main St. (Which later became Tagliebers’ Meat Market) and John Adams disappeared (probably) into Philadelphia.
John surfaces in Sept. 2, 1924 long enough to become an American citizen (Cert. #2033803), while residing at North 9th Street in Chester, Pennsylvania. On June 1, 1930 Rev. George Dougekos of St. George’s Church of Philadelphia united in marriage Aggeliki N. Papageorgiou with John Adam Telis in the presence of a multitude and the best man, Constantine Lakkas. The Adams had three children: Katherine born in Philadelphia; Nicholas born in Chester; and, Gregory born in Willow Grove, in Montgomery County where they lived for over thirty years!