82–83.  Enos Atwater was born in New Haven, Connecticut Colony, on Tuesday, April 10, 1750, and died in Hamden, Connecticut, on December 23, 1802. Lois Alling was born on Sunday, May 17, 1752, and died in Mantua, Ohio, on June 7, 1838. They were married in Hamden on Wednesday, December 29, 1773. She took the name Lois Atwater. He is the son of Jacob and Miriam (Ives) Atwater. She is the daughter of David and Rhoda (Alling) Alling. They had six children:

The following is from Atwater History and Genealogy.

Enos and his young wife, Lois, settled on a little stony farm over the high ridge, perhaps a mile to the west of his father's place. Just as the young couple was starting for themselves and were rejoicing in their first born, Rhoda, the mutterings of the coming Revolutionary Was were more and more distinctly heard, and the excitement grew. New Haven took action for defence. Order was given (1) to erect a beacon on "Indian Hill" (the mountain ridge to the north); (2) to make a fort at "Black Rock," and (3) to procure floating defences in the harbor. The partiots were severely intolerant toward Tories. A committee of "Inspection" was appointed, before which persons were cited (1) "for buying or selling tea; (2) for calling Gage `an honest man'; (3) for speaking slightingly of the money emitted by our assembly." Republic of New Haven by Livermore, pages 212 and 213.) Even the youmg married men caught the was spirit and left their homes and wives and new-born babes.

We learn from "Connecticut Men of the Revolution," page 85, that Enos Atwater enlisted July 10, 1775, in the Eighth Regiment under Captain Joel Clark and Colonel Jedediah Huntington. The regiment was stationed on the Sound till September 14, when, on requisition from Washington, it was ordered to Boston, and took part at Roxbury in General Spencer's brigade. They remained till the expiration of the service and were mustered out in December, 1775.

Enos returned to his family, but the regiment was adopted as Continental and reorganized for service in 1776 under Colonel Huntington. Enos, probably with the majority of the men, re-enlisted, with the understanding, we suppose, that they sould be "minute men"; that they could remain at home till, on emergence, they should be called out. Judge Amzi Atwater's sketch of his early life (see Whittlesey's "History of Cleveland," p. 225) will picture for us the hard experience of the family at this time: "I was born in that part of New Haven, Connecticut, which is now the town of Hamden, on the 23d of May, 1776. My parents were in rather indigent circumstances, and, it being the early part of the Revolutionary War and they having no disposition or means of improving them, they, like most other in that neighborhood, remained poor. Truly those were troublesome times, particularly in that part of the country where I was born. The militia company to which my father belonged was called to go to New York immediately after the defeat of the American troops on Long Island, and several of them never lived to return, and many of those who did were brought home sick. My father was one of the latter, and remained sick a considerable time afterwards. My mother had hard times in those days. She, with her little infant children, was within the sound of the alarm guns, which frequently sounded in her ears, and was surrounded by many neighbors with orphaned children as poor and destitute as herself and some much worse off. It was truly afflicting."

Enos Atwater probably never was strong after his second campaign in the war, but his younger brother, Jotham, having fallen in battle, the family rejoiced that Enos came home even alive. The little farm was not very productive, and so Amzi (and probably, later, also Jothan, named for his soldier uncle) went to work for other farmers, perhaps down in Hamden Plains, when the crops at home were not pressing for attention. Thus, with hard work and close economy, Enos and Lois reared their children in sight of the growing wealth and aristocracy of New Haven and its great college, but with only indirect participation in its advantages. After Rhoda's marriage to Samuel Sanford and their removal to Harwinton, and Amzi and Jotham had gone West in the great surveying parties (the former in 1796 and both in 1797), the parents and three little girls, Lois, Miriam and Mary, had no easy task to make a living from their thin and scanty acres. The property that came by the will of his father, Jacob, early in 1800 (some of his share had been previously received), no doubt put the family in fair condition. But our great-grandfather, probably, declined in health as he reached the age of fifty years. On the 25th of September, 1802, he executed his will, which began thus: "In the name of God, Amen, I, Enos Atwater, of Hamden, being of sound mind and memory yet in a poor state of health, calling to mind my own mortality, judge it to be my duty to make this, my last will and testament: First, my body I commit to the dust to be buried decently at the discretion of my executor, hereafter named, and my soul to the mercy of my Creator. Secondly, touching my property and estate, my will is, and I hereby give to my loving wife, Lois, the use and imporvement of one-third part of all my real estate and one-third part of all my personal estate forever. Thirdly, whereas I have now six children (viz), Rhoda, Lois, Miriam and Mary, also Amzi and Jotham, being my two sons respecting whom my will is that whatever remains of my estate, after my wife has receiver her dower as above, and just debts and charges are paid, be divided among my children above mentioned, in the following manner: my two sons to receive two shares each and my daughters one share each." Lastly, he appoints his brother, "Captain Asa Atwater," as his sole executor.

In Centerville cemetery, perhaps three or four miles from his home, a tombstone near that of his father reads: "In memory of Mr. Enos Atwater, who died Dec. 22 A.D. 1802. AE 53.

As a young girl, Lois and her family lived a short distance from Jacob Atwater's house on the road to New Haven. Enos, thus, often passed her home, and they probably attended church together at Mount Carmel in the years before the Revolution, though Lois and her people may have attended at Hamden Plains. The Alling ancestry of Lois comes down to us in two branches: the "Branch of Roger" and the "Branch of John". Some of these spelled the name Alling, which has been adopted here, some Allyn, some Allen, and some Allin.

Under date of August 22, 1804, the widow Lois gave a quit claim deed of her interest in the family estate in favor of the "lawful heirs". She then removed to Mantua, Ohio, and lived there till her death, June 7, 1838, with her son, Amzi Atwater.

"Death often gives his solemn call
And soon will summons mortals all."

• Atwater, Francis, Atwater History and Genealogy pp. 71–173
• Allen, George P., A History and Genealogical Record of the Alling-Allens of New Haven, Connecticut, 1899