After the war, he was employed as a surveyor and accompanied Moses Cleaveland on his 1796 mission to survey what was then called the Connecticut Western Reserve (now northeastern Ohio).

People could either ride horseback through dense forests and over the Appalachian Mountains, following Indian trails, or they could brave the waters of Lake Erie in small boats and barges full of supplies.

[2] Back in Middletown (near Middlefield), Stow entered public office, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives during the 1805 spring and fall sessions.

[4] He favored Thomas Jefferson in the presidential race of 1800, and thus became an enemy of the local Federalists, who wanted the social order to remain as it was: dominated by the Congregational Church.

He did win his suit, but continued to be criticized for such things as bringing ministers of other denominations to preach at Middlefield's Congregational Church.

An obelisk memorial was erected there with the epitaph:[1] His ancestor, John Stow, was born in Kent County, England, and emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 aboard the Elizabeth.