164–165.  Jacob Atwater was born in New Haven, Connecticut Colony, on Sunday, January 22, 1721, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 11, 1799. Miriam Ives was born in North Haven, Connecticut, on Sunday, October 28, 1722, and died in New Haven on November 11, 1792. They were both buried in Centerville, Connecticut. They were married on Wednesday, February 10, 1748. She took the name Miriam Atwater. He is the son of Jonathan and Abigail (Bradley) Atwater. She is the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Atwater) Ives. They had 12 children:

His second marriage was to Thankful Mix Cotter in New Haven in August, 1794. She took the name Thankful Mix Atwater. She died in New Haven in January, 1801. They had no children. In Atwater History on pages 179 and 180 is found:
Again, as Enos Atwater's wife, Lois Alling Atwater was the granddaughter of Thankful Mix Alling (wife of Caleb Alling, 1694 to 1760?), Thankful may have been a nephew's daughter or nephew's granddaughter to that lady. Be that as it may, Mrs. Thankful Atwater was, from August, 1794, to January, 1801, in the home where this remarkably interesting family had grown up, and from which it had scattered. She was there in time to help nurse Asa's little Betsey that died, and to care for our stalwart forefather, Jacob, as he declined with the declining century. But one act of Mrs. Thankful Atwater gives her a special personality and makes her seem nearer than most of the blood relations of one hundred years ago. She had a tape needle marked with the initials of her maiden name, "T. M." This she gave to her step-daughter, Lois (wife of Enos), probably just before her death, to be kept by her and handed down to the oldest daughter in the family. Lois gave the needle to her oldest daughter, Mrs. Rhoda Sanford; she to her daughter, Mrs. Julia Sanford Haven (Mrs, John H.); she to her daughter, Mrs. Annis Haven Pardee (Mrs. Frank P.); she to her daughter, Annis Matilda, in whose possession the needle (and box for it) now is at the time of the publication of this history [1901]. Is it possible that this Thankful Mix had received the needle from Thankful Mix Alling and thus thought to return it to its rightful heritage? Thankful outlived Jacob by only a little more than a year.

From Atwater History is taken the following.

Jacob Atwater lived about eight miles north of New Haven. His home was on the hillside on the north side of the road running southwest from Mt. Carmel village; a little west of where in the next century was located the New Haven and Northampton Railroad. The visitor will find the ruins of the house scarcely a mile from the station. It overlooked a meadow to the southeast, across the road, and a running stream and an old Ives homestead to the southwest. Was this the place where Miriam Ives was reared? Jacob Atwater must have been a man of more than ordinary account. He had a considerable property, estimated by the appraisers of his estate at nearly 2,000 pounds. He surely filled a large place in the family connection and among his fellow citizens. He is styled II Captain" on his tombstone, which means, we suppose, that he held that position in the militia for the drill of the old-time training day. When the Revolutionary War broke out, he, at the age of fifty-five, was counted, no doubt, too old for the service. His children, though but eight are mentioned in his will and but ten in our Register of 1873, numbered twelve, a favorite number with our old Bible-reading, Israel-loving ancestry.

Jacob Atwater is known to us as being very strict in keeping the Sabbath. His grandson, Jason Bassett (son of Lydia), related to the writer this story: "One Saturday he had failed to sell his produce in town as promptly as usual and the sun set (the beginning of the Puritan Sabbath) before he reached home. When he saw that the sun was going down he turned his back to the west, whipped up his horses and drove hard and never said a word." But Elias Dickerman (a great-grandson) said of this story that he had heard another version: "When he saw the sun was really going down, Saturday evening, he unhitched his ox-team from the wagon, and leaving it by the roadside, he let the oxen, still yoked, walk home, he following on foot. On Monday (or Sunday evening after sunset) he returned for the wagon."Both stories may be true.

His children and grandchildren no doubt piously and joyfully gathered home each year for Thanksgiving, according to the good old New England custom. Judge Atwater, in a rhymed letter (1817) to Edward Atwater (son of Elisha), speaking of "things that happened in his youth," wrote:

The times thus pleasantly called up, were the ten or twelve years after the Revolutionary War. The "Jovial" grandfather Jacob was, no doubt, still hale and hearty, the good grandmother, Miriam, though somewhat broken after the birth of twelve children, and often lamenting the death in battle of the strong and vigorous young soldier, Jotham, was cheered by the frequent presence of her numerous sons and daughters and their little ones. Revs. Noah and Jason would leave their pulpits at Westfield, Mass., and Branford, Conn.; Enos and Lois come from their farm over the ridge, bringing little Rhoda, Amzi, jotham, Lois, Miriam and Mary; Mabel and Lydia and their husbands, each with a goodly company of little Bassetts, came thronging, and added to the family cheer.

Each year there would be at least one new grandchild. Enos and Lois, besides Rhoda, Amzi and jothain, brought baby Lois in 1784 (but Rhoda at ten years of age was able to help take care of her); Lydia brought her babe, Lovicy Bassett, in 1786, and Jason in 1789; Lois again, in 1788, brought little Miriam (known to the writer and his family in the next century as "Aunt Miriam Pond"), and again Lydia, in 1792, brought her latest born, Elias Bassett, who was destined, by his long and frequent correspondence with his older cousin Amzi (born 1776), to keep the two branches of the family in touch in coming years, and to furnish the historian with much valuable information for this volume.

Perhaps Rev. Noah, when he came to thanksgiving in 1786, apologized to the inquiring company for not bringing his young son William, by saying that the journey (by stage?) was too long and hard for his wife and child, and if he came in I 78 7 it was with the sad word that his Rachel had passed from earth, leaving her baby Lucy in his arms.

But that year was marked by another loss. Elisha and Mary probably early sought employment in New Haven, Asa and his young sister Miriam staying at home to help father and mother, while their older brothers and sisters, married or single, pushed out into the world for their careers. It seems that Miriam, the youngest born and her mother's namesake, now at the age of 18, married in 1786 or early in 1787 a young man by the name of Mallery, and, to the grief of all, died November 6, 1787, leaving a babe, whom they in sorrow called Miriam, for her mother. Whether the little one was born and reared at the Jacob Atwater homestead, or in some Mallery family, it cannot now be made out. But certain it is that she lived to some years, since "ten pounds" were set apart for her according to the provision of her grandfather's will, which had the following words: "My granddaughter, Meriam Mallery, to whom, if ,he lives to the age of eighteen years, I give the sum of ten pounds, lawful money." That will, which left to his I loving wife, Miriam," "the use and improvement of the one-third part of his personal estate," and to his sons Noah and Jason, to each of whom he had given "public education," but thirty pounds each, provided that his sons Enos, Elisha and Asa should have four times as much as his three daughters, Mabel, Lydia and Mary. Question: Was this apparently unfair division in accordance with old New England custom, or did he thus provide because he saw that his sons were in an uncertain state of health, while the daughters were strong and had the prospect of long life before them? Whatever was the cause, the sons all died comparatively young, Enos and Elisha at the age of fifty-two, Noah and Asa at about fifty, while Jason "in mid-career sank down" at the early age of thirty-five; but Mabel lived, notwithstanding the affliction of her last days, to be seventy-five, Mary to seventy-seven and Lydia to eighty-one.

Our good great-great-grandmother, Miriam, did not live to claim the benefit of the provisions of the will in her behalf, but died in 1792, nearly seven years before her husband.

The following document will explain itself:

Whereas, we, Jacob Atwater, single man, and Thankfull Cotter, single woman, both of Hamden, have, as we hope and believe with due consideration, agreed to enter into the marriage covenant with each other, which we expect shortly to take place, and as each of us are considerably advanced in life, and no probability of having heirs by such intermarriage, we have mutually agreed to make the following contract and agreement, (viz.,) The said Jacob, on his part, covenants and agrees with the said Thankfull that she shall have full liberty to dispose of, in any manner she pleases, all and every part of her estate, both real and personal, at such time and manner as is most agreeable to her, and the said Jacob further agrees and binds himself, and his heirs, executors and administrators, firmly by this jointure and agreement, that, in case the said Thankfull should survive him, she shall have a decent, handsome and comfortable maintenance from his estate or from his heirs, during her natural life, if she remains his widow. And the said Thankfull covenants, agrees and engages that, in consideration above, she will hereafter, if she should survive said Jacob, have no further claim, challenge or demand on the said jacob's estate, or his heirs, executors or administrators, than is above expressed. In witness whereof, we, the parties, have hereunto set our hands this the 6th day of August, 1794, in the presence of

Simeon Bristol

Jacob Atwater her Thankfull X Cotter       mark

Here are inscriptions on tombstones at Centerville, Conn.:

1. A large, white tombstone, "In memory of Capt. Jacob Atwater, who died Dec. 11, 1799, aged 79."

   The day of life will soon be gone; The night of death is hastening on; The judgment day will end the night. And bring the ways of God to light.

2. There is near by a brown stone, smaller than the other, in memory of Mrs. Merriam, wife of Jacob Atwater, who died in 1792, aged 70 years.
3. And a still smaller and poorer brown stone, the wording now scarcely legible, in memory of Mrs. Thankfull, wife of Mr. Jacob Atwater, who died Jan. 27, 1801, aged 67.

• Atwater, Francis, Atwater History and Genealogy, vol. I, pp. 131—135