Elisha Atkins (1813-1888) began importing Cuban sugar and molasses to the US in 1838 and in 1843 began trading in Cuban sugar under Atkins & Freeman in partnership with William Freeman, a relative of his wife.  After 1849, he operated under the name E. Atkins & Co.  Ca. 1877 E. Atkins & Co. acquired Boston's Bay State Sugar Refining Co. in payment of indebtedness, Edwin F Atkins became its president and manager and Joseph Stillman was superintendent.  In 1892 Bay State Sugar Refining Co. was one of the seventeen sugar refineries that by the end of that year had consolidated into The Sugar Refineries Company, also known as The Sugar Trust under the direction of Henry Osborne Havemeyer.  A year later it was dismantled and moved to the Standard Refinery in South Boston. When he sold Bay State Refinery Edwin F. Atkins was made a director the Boston Sugar Refining Co. of East Boston and Havemeyer sent Stillman to New York to be in charge of Havemeyer & Elder Refinery. The Sugar Refineries Co. restructured in 1891 as the American Sugar Refining Co. (ASR).

Elisha’s son, Edwin Farnsworth Atkins (1850-1926) made his first trip to Cuba with his father in 1866 and after finishing school began working at E. Atkins & Co. as an apprentice with his father on India Wharf in Boston in December 1868. At the time Elisha was involved in the railroad business as Vice President of the Union Pacific Railroad and wanted Edwin to take over management of the Cuban end of the business. So in December 1869, a year after the beginning of the Ten Years War he was sent to Cienfuegos, Cuba a town established in 1817 as Fernandina de Jagua, so he could learn Spanish and the Spanish business methods. He was taken care of by Spanish immigrant from Santander Ramón de la Torriente and worked at the office of Torriente Bros. a prestigious commercial firm established in the 1840s in Cienfuegos that owned several large warehouses in the port area and who in the 1870s built a dock known as “Muelle Torriente”. Torriente Bros. was comprised of brothers, Esteban de la Torriente Fernandez and Ramón de la Torriente Fernandez (1817-1876) and were the Cuban correspondents of E Atkins & Co. After six years back and forth between Boston and Cienfuegos, in 1875 then twenty four years old Edwin became a partner and took over the reigns of the Cuban end of the business at E. Atkins & Co.  

The damaging effects of the Ten Years War had forced some sugarcane planters and manufacturers into bankruptcy. One of these were the estates of the Sarría family which had been financed by Torriente Bros. largely with money provided by E. Atkins & Co. Ca. 1841 Juan Bautista Sarría Valdespino (1775-1868) established Ingenio Soledad and from the resources of Soledad, a few years later built Ingenio Rosario on adjacent land. Upon his death Ingenio Soledad was left to his widow Mariana del Rosario “Mariquita” Albis and Ingenio Rosario was left to their son Domingo Sarría Albis who before returning to live in Spain, from the cash flow provided by Ingenio Rosario had built another sugar factory named Ingenio Cantabria. Domingo’s affairs in Cuba were mismanaged by the family members he left in charge and due to the mismanagement and the crisis brought about by the war, E. Atkins & Co. and Torriente Bros. took a joint mortgage on four estates own by the Sarria’s, Ingenio Soledad, Ingenio San José de Jibacoa, Ingenio San Ygnacio and Ingenio Vueltas to protect their interests.

In 1880 it became necessary to foreclose on their joint mortgages and place the estates in the hands of a receiver. During the time the estates were in receivership, although Torriente Bros. were joint tenants with E. Atkins & Co., Edwin took it upon himself their supervision, especially Ingenio Soledad to which he had taken special interest and always envisioned having to take over. In June 1884 Atkins took over Soledad from Torriente for a settled price of $335,000, since Edwin lived in Belmont, MA and only spent part of the year in Cienfuegos, he appointed Pittsburgh native Mr. J. S. Murray (1834-1907) as manager and immediately installed new machinery acquired from Pioneer Iron Works in Brooklyn, NY elevating it to a central sugar mill. As things would have it, even though E. Atkins & Co. operations in Cuba did not originally include ownership of sugar plantations, Central Soledad became its first and one of their major acquisitions.  They also acquired Ingenio San Rafael and Ingenio San José from the Torrientes, the first and the second was leased.

The operation of Central Soledad became Edwin's personal interest and in great part due to the McKinley Tariff of 1890, production of sugar in Cuba rose from 632,000 tons in 1890 to 1,054,000 in 1894 which increase benefited as well the sugar production at Central Soledad. In the following years, other sugar properties were acquired included the ones herein listed, some which became part of Central Soledad which by the end of 1893 consisted of some twelve thousand acres of which five hundred were planted with sugarcane. It had twenty two miles of railway and a capacity to grind 120,000 tons and employed some one thousand two hundred during the crop season.

• The Caledonia Estate was taken over from the heirs of Diego Julián Sanchez by Manuel Blanco and E. Atkins & Co. and was absorbed by Central Soledad, later Atkins would buy Blanco’s half and become sole owner

• In 1889 Ingenio Guabairo was built from the Atkins half of the Caledonia Estate and and this portion was turned into the Guabairo management

• Limones was bought from the wife of Alfredo Vila who was the niece of Diego Julián Sanchez, it was here that Atkins established the Harvard Botanical Station in 1901

• The Brazo Estate was inherited by the wife of Juan de la Torre who was also a niece of Diego Julian Sanchez, it was leased by E. Atkins & Co. and afterward bought outright

• The Viamones Estatewas also leased from the wife of Juan de la Torre the niece of Diego Julian Sanchez were developed by the Sanchez family

• The Vega Vieja Estate was developed by the Juan Andrés Yznaga of Trinidad, after his death E. Atkins & Co. bought the one half ownership interest in Vega Vieja that adjoined Soledad from his son Carlos and leased the other half from his sister Diana Barrieta

• The Santa Teresa Estate was purchased from Juan Perez Galdós the brother of Benito Perez Galdós for potreros (horse stables)

• The Veguitas Estate was acquired from E. Atkins & Co. longtime lawyer José Porrúa and turned into a cattle ranch

• The Vacqueria Estate was purchased from the Barrallaza family, Atkins kept part of the estate on the west side of the Caunao River adjacent to the Caledonia Estate and transferred the portion on the east side of the river to Elias Ponvert who incorporated it to his Central Hormiguero

• The San Esteban Estate originally owned by Tomás Terry, was owned by the heirs of Barrallaza, was leased from Spanish immigrant from Santander and close friend Esteban Cacicedo de la Torriente (1849-1932)

• Ingenio Cantabria by the beginning of the war of Independence in 1895 had been demolished

• Ingenio San José de Jibacoa was developed by Juan Bautista Sarría, had been foreclosed on by Torriente Bros. who ca. 1892 gave it to E. Atkins & Co. in lieu of payment, was leased ca. 1894

• Ingenio San Rafael was sold to José Garcia of García & Co. a large provisions wholesale in Cienfuegos

• Central Caracas at the time with a capacity of producing some three hundred thousand bags of sugar belonged to Tomás Terry, in the 1910s his heirs sold it to the Cuban Central Railway Co. from whom Atkins bought it in 1920. In the 1930s it was taken over by the First National Bank of Boston.

Ownership of Central Soledad was transferred in 1915 to the Punta Alegre Sugar Co., established by Edwin’s son Robert Wrisley Atkins (1889-1948). Although Edwin was the president of the company the everyday affairs were handled by Robert.

Another of Atkin's investments in sugar manufacturing was Central Trinidad located in the Valley of San Luis, today known as Valle de los Ingenios. Trinidad Sugar Co. was incorporated in New Jersey in 1892 by Henry O. Havemeyer (40%), his cousin and business associate Charles Senff (40%) and Edwin F. Atkins (20%).  Its organization was prompted by the adoption of the McKinley Tariff of 1890 which reduced duties on Cuban sugar imported to the US.  The Trinidad Sugar Co. leased the Ingenio Guáimaro built in the early 1800s by José Mariano Borrell y Padrón and inherited by his son José Mariano Borrell y Lemus. Trinidad Sugar Co. also had a long term lease on then dismantled Ingenio Buena Vista which included San José de Altamaza Estate and Las Bocas Estate, owned by the German merchant banking firm of Meyer & Thode whose principal Meyer had married Belén Yznaga. The company also leased Ingenio Monserrate de Algaba and purchased Ingenio Manaca from José y Saturnino Sanchez Yznaga. They also had a long term lease on the Aracas de Riquelme Estate taken in order to recover moneys owed the Trinidad Sugar Co. by its owner Sebastian Montalvo y Mantilla the husband of Bárbara Inés Yznaga Fernandez de Lara. By the time of the American occupation after the War of Independence, E. Atkins & Co. was the largest plantation owner in Cuba. 

After Elisha’s death in 1889 Edwin became the youngest director at Union Pacific. In 1891 Edwin was one of the original stockholders in the ASR and became a member of its board of directors in December 1909. In 1920 when Edwin resigned from the ASR board, he was one of the largest and most influential stockholders of ASR and had been closely associated with the development of the company to its prominent position in the sugar industry.  In addition to his involvement in E. Atkins & Co., Punta Alegre Sugar Co. and the American Sugar Refining Co., Edwin F. Atkins served on the Board of Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad, Aetna Mills, Boston Wharf Co., American Trust Co., National Shawmut Bank, Second National Bank of Boston and was for a year president of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co.

In 1921 Frank C. Lowry of the Federal Sugar Refining Co., Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer Jr. (1881-1937), past president of the Merchant's National Bank of Boston and Chase National Bank of NY and Horace O. Havemeyer joined E. Atkins & Co.  Upon Edwin F. Atkins death in May 1926 they took over E. Atkins & Co. and operated it under the name E. Lowry & Co.