AUTHOR’S NOTE: The series of Niagara Discoveries entries that will appear over the next few weeks were originally published in the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal in February 2015 after the Niagara History Center received a donation of Atwater family material through the personal generosity of former Lockport City Historian Marge Truax. The collection had been left to her by her neighbors, the Atwater sisters, and she later donated the items to the NHC. Some revisions and additional information have been included in these updated articles.
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Every city has its leading citizens, those families that seem to dominate in every aspect of community service, business, education and politics. The city of Lockport had several of these families but this series of articles will profile only two, the Atwaters of Lockport and the Tuckers of Niagara Falls and Lockport. Related by marriage, both of these families exemplify the belief in civic responsibility that was so characteristic of the 19th century. Their stories took place all over Western New York including Fredonia, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lockport and Middleport. The surviving correspondence, diaries, journals and other documents span from the 1830s to 1910s.
The chronologists include a 10-year-old girl, an Indian Wars soldier, a U.S. Naval Officer, a young woman on the “Grand Tour,” a teenage girl who composes poetry and a young wife and mother detailing the day-to-day events in the lives of her children.
These archival samplings do leave some gaps in the stories, however. The real challenge is trying to fill in those gaps using other available resources. This series is an attempt to open a small window into the lives of two families whose stories span almost 100 years of local history and cover three Western New York counties.
James Atwater, 1821 – 1903
The Atwater family originated in Connecticut, later moved to Dutchess County, New York, and then on to Schoharie County, where James was born on Aug. 29, 1821. He came to Niagara County in 1838 and taught school for a few years before receiving his teaching degree from the Albany Normal School in 1845. He returned to this area and taught math at the Lockport Union School where he later became principal. He met his wife, Jane Taft, who was a teacher there, and they were married in 1851.
James Atwater served as superintendent of Lockport schools for 12 years, founded an insurance and real estate business in the city in 1870, was mayor of Lockport for two years (1893-1894) and was considered one of the leading citizens of the city. In politics, he began as a supporter of the abolitionist Liberty Party, casting his first vote for James Birney in the 1844 presidential election. He later joined the Whig party and eventually became a staunch Republican.
In 1856, while he served as superintendent of schools, he was asked to endorse a letter of recommendation for Richard Crowley, a young teacher who would soon become a New York State senator and later a U.S. Congressman (his daughter Maude was later engaged to marry a son of President Chester Arthur but she died before the wedding took could take place).
James Atwater died on Dec. 19, 1903, at the age of 82. Though the home that he and his family resided in still exists on Genesee Street, ironically, very little of his personal correspondence has survived to the 21st century.
Jane Taft Atwater, 1827 — 1907
Jane Taft was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on Dec. 23, 1827. In 1838 her family moved from Williamstown to Middleport, New York. In a letter dated Sept. 3, 1838, to an older, recently married sister who stayed behind, 10-year-old Jane described part of her journey on the Erie Canal:
“The next morning after we left Lyons about sunrise we arrived at Rochester, we went to Eagle Tavern, we staid there about two hours…After breakfast we took the packet to go home [to Middleport]…I have written a letter to Brother Read giving him a description of my journey from Williamstown to this place [Middleport] but I have not received an answer yet. I have got acquainted with but two girls Catherine Baker and Elen Lane. Elen Lane is comeing here this afternoon. I expect to go to school in a few days.”
A few weeks later, Jane wrote to her sister again. This time the letter was filled with “incidentals.”
“Those roots in those boxes flourish finely; the largest two boxes of moss have spread so that they fill the boxes. In the smallest box the chickens have come out all around the old hens…Our black cat had three kittens…Uncle Williams got his house raised and expects to move into it late this fall. My Doll is well. I have made her a new calico dress but I do not know what to name her. I want you to name her won’t you?”
In the late 1840s Jane Taft found a teaching position at the Union School where she met James Atwater. They were married in 1851 in Wisconsin at the home of another sister. They had five children who lived to adulthood: Willard, Charles, Edwin, Irving and Jennie. Son Irving married Florella Tucker, thus bringing the two families together.
Jane Atwater was “a devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church and a regular attendant as long as her health permitted.” She died on March 7, 1907 and was buried in Cold Spring Cemetery alongside her husband.
NEXT WEEK: The Atwater children.