The Biographical Dictionary of America/Atwater, Amzi

ATWATER, Amzi, pioneer, was born at New Haven, Conn., May 23, 1776. In 1794 he went to Westfield, Mass., where he studied mathematics and surveying, and the following year started for western New York. On his route he met an expedition led by Moses Cleveland on its way to survey the Western reserve of Ohio, and he became lineman and assistant surveyor for the party, with which he remained two years, running township lines for it and for the Holland land company in western New York. He settled in Mantua, Ohio, in 1800, and when Portage county was organized, in 1808, he was elected its first county judge. He died June 22, 1851.