Born in 1837 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Jonathan Atherton and Elizabeth Robinson. His early education was received at public schools, graduating from the Brimmer School and the Boston Latin School. In December 1858 he sailed to Honolulu, Hawaii, on a long ocean voyage via Cape Horn on the clipper ship Syren, seeking to improve his health.
Career
Shortly after his arrival in Honolulu, he took a job as a bookkeeper at Castle & Cooke, a sugar cane producer. In 1865, he was named a junior partner, and in 1894 he became senior member; and then its president. Castle & Cooke during his tenure, was one of the Big Five, known in Hawaiian as Nā Hui Nui ʻElima. These sugarcane processing corporations wielded considerable political power in the Territory of Hawaii and leaned heavily towards the Hawaii Republican Party. He remained as president of Castle & Cooke until his death in 1903. He was President of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, as well as for many years being the President of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce. He was a leading and influential member of the Fort Street Church, Honolulu, later the Central Union Church, where he was deacon and treasurer. Civic duties included being appointed as a member of the privy council under King Kalakaua in 1887, and again in 1891 by his successor, Queen Liliuokalani.
Atherton was a member of the Committee of Safety, formally the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety, which was a 13-member group of the Annexation Club. The group was composed of mostly Hawaiian subjects and American citizens who were members of the Missionary Party, as well as foreign residents in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi that planned and carried out the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi on January 17, 1893. The goal of this group was to achieve annexation of Hawaiʻi by the United States. The new independent Republic of Hawaii government was thwarted in this goal by the administration of President Grover Cleveland, and it was not until 1898 that the United States Congress approved a joint resolution of annexation creating the Territory of Hawaii.
Other business interests
In 1897 Atherton, along with Peter Cushman Jones and his son Edwin A. Jones, Clarence Hyde Cooke, Fred W. MacFarlane, Edward Davies Tinney, H. Waterhouse, T. May and C. Bosse founded the Bank of Hawaii, the second bank to be established in the Hawaiian Islands. The Bank of Hawaii was chartered in the Republic of Hawaii by Interior Minister James A. King. A decade after its founding in 1903, the bank opened its first branch in Kauai. He served as a director or trustee for many prominent organizations and boards in Hawaii, including the Oahu Railway and Land Company, Honolulu Iron Works, Paia Plantation Company, Haiku Sugar Company, Kohala Sugar Company and the Mutual Telephone Company. He was a director of various other business enterprises throughout the Hawaiian Islands. A supporter of the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, he founded the newspaper Hawaiian Star of Honolulu in 1893, as, "the official voice of the Provisional Government by American businessman." Hawaii was annexed April 30, 1900, becoming the Territory of Hawaii. Nine years after Atherton's death, the paper was merged with the Evening Bulletin to become the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, financially backed by the Atherton family.
Personal life
After five years on the islands, he became engaged to Juliette Montague Cooke, the daughter of Amos Starr Cooke, She shared the same name as her mother Juliette Montague Cooke.
Shortly afterwards Juliette left to the United States for a year long visit. Upon her return they married on June 29, 1865. The couple had six children, two of whom died at an early age:
Charles H. Atherton who later assumed the full business responsibilities of his father.
Mary Atherton who married Theodore Richards and who wrote about her grandmother Juliette Montague Cooke.
Benjamin Hawley Atherton, who died at an early age.
Dr Alexander Montague Atherton who went on to work at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. Doctor of Medicine. A.R., Wesleyan 1897, Resident Physician Charity Hospital, Blackwell’s Island, NY 1901–1902, and then as a Physician in Honolulu.
Frank Cooke Atherton who began his career at the Bank of Hawaii, was later the director of Hawaiian Electric Co.. His son, J. Ballard Atherton, was president of Hawaiian Telephone Company.
Kate Marion Atherton
Death
He died in Honolulu on April 7, 1903 and was buried at Kawaiahaʻo Church Cemetery, Honolulu. His death, reportedly after suffering from a long lingering illness was reported on the front cover of The Honolulu Advertiser, of April 8, 1903, and a full obituary was featured on page 7, of the same newspaper. Such was his prominence in the city of Honolulu, that there was a universal closing of business establishments, as a mark of respect to him. He was survived by many grandchildren.
