Alexander W. Stow, lawyer, jurist, and businessman, was born February 5, 1805 in Louisville, Lewis County, New York. Not much is known of his early life. He attended West Point for one year, but did not like it and resigned. Stow then studied law, and later established a legal practice in Lewis County. In the early 1830's he practiced law in Rochester, New York. During much of 1837-1839, Stow traveled through France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In 1841 he came to Wisconsin and settled on land he had purchased in Taycheedah Township, Fond du Lac County. From 1841 to 1848, Stow practiced law and dabbled in business in Fond du Lac and Milwaukee.
When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, Stow was elected circuit judge of the 4th Judicial District. Under the provisions of the Wisconsin Constitution, circuit judges served ex-officio as Justices on the state's Supreme Court. Stow's colleagues on the court elected him the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. When his term expired in 1851, Stow retired to private life, and to his law and business practices.
Stow's character had diverse facets. An early love of poetry stayed with him throughout his life; some poems he himself wrote remain. His journals of his travels through Europe reveal a highly developed sensibility. Yet he was also a rough, often abrasive, and independent man who offended many. He never married, but had a Chippewa squaw as a common law wife. He was thought of as eccentric--for example, he rarely signed his letters.
Justice Stow died on September 14, 1854 in Wisconsin.
