The association between DeLancey Stow and, his father, William Stow, (both of whom also practiced law) and the insurance business began when the elder Stow built the one-story office for his legal practice and insurance business in the thriving canal town of Clyde, N.Y. in 1825. This was early enough for the Stows to call their quaint building "The Oldest Insurance Office in the United States," a claim subject to challenge, perhaps.

The Erie Canal had just been completed when William Stow set up his ventures. In addition to conducting his legal practice, he sold passage on the canal and insurance to canal shippers. Life insurance might come along later, but William Stow did well enough selling fire, accident and marine insurance. After his son, DeLancey, was admitted to the bar in 1862, the two worked as partners for nearly 20 years. When the elder Stow died in 1880, DeLancey Stow carried on until his own death at age 83 in 1925 — ending just a century of "business as usual" in "The Oldest Insurance Office in the United States."