Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Atherholt, Thomas C.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Haycock Township


THOMAS C. ATHERHOLT wholesale dealer in china, glass and 
queensware, 422 Market street, Philadelphia, was born on his 
father's farm in Haycock township, Bucks county.  Through 
his mother he is a descendant of Edward McCarty, of 
revolutionary fame.  His great-grandfather was Nicholas 
McCarty, who served under Washington at Valley Forge and who 
was widely known in the northern part of the county as a 
justice of the peace in the early days of the republic.  The 
father of the subject of this sketch was named Samuel, and 
was married to Hannah, daughter of John G. McCarty.  They 
had three children, of whom Thomas was the second and the 
oldest son.  His father dying when he was but three years 
old he lived with his grandfather, David Atherholt, until he 
was 14 years old, when he was apprenticed for three years to 
learn the business of storekeeping.  He then entered 
Hemingway's academy at Milford, N. J., where he stayed for 
more than a year, and then again engaged in mercantile 
pursuits.  Having a good education, at the age of 20 he went 
to Wisconsin, where he engaged in teaching.  Imbibing from 
his patriotic ancestors a spirit of hatred to every form of 
oppression, and especially to that of human slavery, he soon 
went to Kansas and took an active part in the anti-slavery 
ranks under John Brown and James Lane against the border 
ruffians.  While in Kansas he was also engaged in surveying 
government lands.  Two years later, in 1858, he returned to 
Bucks county and again engaged in mercantile business, first 
at Stover's Mill, in Haycock, and later at Pipersville and 
Point Pleasant.  In 1868 he removed to Trenton, N. J., 
engaging in the wholesale china and queensware trade.  In 
1872 he removed to Philadelphia and began the wholesale 
china business under the firm name of Atherholt, Fisher & 
Co., and ten years later sold out to his partners, and in 
1884 commenced his present business under the firm name of 
Thomas C. Atherholt & Co.  He was married in 1859 to Martha 
C., daughter of Henry Fretz, of Bucks county.  They have had 
five children:  Samuel, Edgar Frank, Arthur Thomas and 
Joseph Octavius, living, and Wilson David, who died in 
infancy.  Mr. Atherholt and his family are members of 
Trinity Reformed church.  He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, of the I. O. O. F., and politically is a 
republican.