Mary Atherton Richards
Title
Mary Atherton Richards
Description
Mary Atherton Richards (April 21, 1869 - April 18, 1951)
Mary Atherton Richards was the granddaughter of eighth company missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke, and the daughter of Juliette Montague Atherton and Joseph Ballard Atherton. She was born in the 1821 Mission House which you can see across the street from this cemetery.
Mary followed her parents and grandparents into public service. She led the Morning Music Club, begun in 1905, a monthly meeting club for active local musicians and singers. She was a commissioner of the Department of Public Education and made it her mission to improve the quality of teachers. She campaigned for the opening of the first high schools on Kauaʻi and Maui, and helped to establish the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind.
For many years she led the Women’s Board of Missions, whose causes included temperance, the establishment of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese school and health departments, and from these, financial assistance was sent out beyond Hawaii to infant health clinics in South Africa, Egypt and China.
With her husband, Theodore, Mary Atherton Richards gave property for the establishment of schools, an endowment for the Hawaiian Board of Missions, and gave Fernhurst, their family home, to the YWCA for the establishment of a home for working women.. They established Kokokahi, a camp in the beauty of nature for weary souls to enjoy a respite from their lives. Montague Hall at Punahou School was a gift from the Richards, and a foundation created for Mary Atherton Richards constructed a memorial chapel at the United Church of Christ in Nuʻuanu. Mary and her husband traveled the world to further their evangelical goals.
Mary wrote for The Friend, the mission’s newspaper, and two books; The Chiefs Childrens’ School, an account of the work of her grandparents, Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke as instructors and guardians of the chiefly children of Hawaiʻi in the 1800s, and a history of her grandparents, Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke.
Mary Cushing Atherton Richards
Born April 21, 1869 Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Died April 18, 1951, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Sources:
Notable Women of Hawaii, Barbara Bennett Peterson, editor, University of Hawaii Press 1984
https://www.ywcaoahu.org/ywca-oahu-120/2020/4/27/a-moment-in-our-history-kokokahi-a-place-where-all-gather-in-the-shared-spirit-of-one-blood
Mary Atherton Richards was the granddaughter of eighth company missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke, and the daughter of Juliette Montague Atherton and Joseph Ballard Atherton. She was born in the 1821 Mission House which you can see across the street from this cemetery.
Mary followed her parents and grandparents into public service. She led the Morning Music Club, begun in 1905, a monthly meeting club for active local musicians and singers. She was a commissioner of the Department of Public Education and made it her mission to improve the quality of teachers. She campaigned for the opening of the first high schools on Kauaʻi and Maui, and helped to establish the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind.
For many years she led the Women’s Board of Missions, whose causes included temperance, the establishment of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese school and health departments, and from these, financial assistance was sent out beyond Hawaii to infant health clinics in South Africa, Egypt and China.
With her husband, Theodore, Mary Atherton Richards gave property for the establishment of schools, an endowment for the Hawaiian Board of Missions, and gave Fernhurst, their family home, to the YWCA for the establishment of a home for working women.. They established Kokokahi, a camp in the beauty of nature for weary souls to enjoy a respite from their lives. Montague Hall at Punahou School was a gift from the Richards, and a foundation created for Mary Atherton Richards constructed a memorial chapel at the United Church of Christ in Nuʻuanu. Mary and her husband traveled the world to further their evangelical goals.
Mary wrote for The Friend, the mission’s newspaper, and two books; The Chiefs Childrens’ School, an account of the work of her grandparents, Amos Starr and Juliette Montague Cooke as instructors and guardians of the chiefly children of Hawaiʻi in the 1800s, and a history of her grandparents, Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke.
Mary Cushing Atherton Richards
Born April 21, 1869 Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Died April 18, 1951, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Sources:
Notable Women of Hawaii, Barbara Bennett Peterson, editor, University of Hawaii Press 1984
https://www.ywcaoahu.org/ywca-oahu-120/2020/4/27/a-moment-in-our-history-kokokahi-a-place-where-all-gather-in-the-shared-spirit-of-one-blood
Files
Collection
Citation
“Mary Atherton Richards,” Hawaiian Mission Houses Digital Archive, accessed November 22, 2024, https://hmha.missionhouses.org/items/show/14119.