Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/665

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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place of business, or it may have been taken trom some event in which a starling was concerned ; but of this there is now no rec- ord or means of knowing. In America the name is spelled Stearns, Sternes, Sterns, or Starns and Starnes, the last two forms be- ing distinctly southern, while in England it btill seems to be spelled Sterne, two notable instances being the names of Richard Sterne. Lord Archbishop of York, and Lawrence Sterne, the distinguished novelist, author of 'Tristram Shandy" and other works. In America the changes probably commenced m the pronunciation, and extended to the writing of the name, which, in Winthrop's journal and in the early town and county records of Massachusetts, appears as Sterne.

Charles Stearns appears in Watertown, Massachusetts, very early in the history of that town, where he was admitted a free- man. May 6, 1646, and purchased land, March 15, 1648. He is mentioned in the will of Isaac Stearns as a kinsman, and re- ceived a legacy of ten pounds. In 1681 he was elected constable or tax gatherer, but refused to take the oath, and in the same year sold his Watertown land. It is sup- posed that he removed about this time to Lynn, settling in that part called Lynn End, now the town of Lynnfield. His first wife Hannah died in 1651, and he married (sec- ond) June 22, 1654, Rebecca, daughter of John and Rebecca Gibson, of Cambridge. The third son of his second wife, John Stearns, was born January 24, 1657, in Watertown, and was a housewright, resid- ing in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he died February 22, 1722. He married, in 1681, Judith Lawrence, born May 12, 1660, daughter of George and Elizabeth (Crispe) Lawrence, and they were the parents of thirteen children. The eldest son, George Stearns, born 1688, lived in the west pre- cinct of Waltham, Massachusetts, where he died June 26, 1760. He married, October 23, 1712, Hannah Sanderson, born May 31, i68g, daughter of Deacon Jonathan and Abiah (Bartlett) Sanderson, of Cambridge. Their eldest child was Jonathan Stearns, born December 26, 1713. He settled in Mil- ford, Massachusetts, where he purchased sixty-seven acres of land shortly before his marriage, and afterward added much to his domain. He was an industrious and thrifty citizen. He married, February 27. 1736,

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Beulah Chadwick, born October 14, 1719, daughter of Ebenezer and Abigail (Grant) Chadwick, of Weston. They had twelve children, the second being George Stearns, born April 16, 1741, in Milford. He was an early resident of Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts, where he died January i, 1812. He married, October 29, 1765, Keziah Palmer, of Mendon, Massachusetts, born March 15, 1747, died November 12, 1819. Of their eleven children, the third (being the second son), was Darius Stearns, born May 12, 1770, in Conway, which town he repre- sented eight years in the state legislature, and died there March 8, 1859. He is styled captain, probably through service in the militia. He married, February 15, 1795, Margaret Broderick, of Conway, born Feb- ruary 5, 1774, died May 18, 1844. Their third child and second son, Lewis Patrick Stearns, was born very early in the nine- teenth century, and settled in Franklin county, Virginia, about 1825. Later he re- moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he died October 15, 1834. He was a peddler, driving over large sections of the South, shrewd and successful, and acquired some property. He married, about 1826, Sarah Cabiness, who died in Tuscaloosa. They had two children : Orren Darius, of further mention below, and John Lewis, now a noted physician of Salem, Virginia. After the death of the parents, the sons were taken tc Franklin county, Virginia, and reared by their maternal grandmother.

Orren Darius Stearnes, eldest son of Lewis Patrick and Sarah (Cabiness) Stearns, was born 1827, in Franklin county, Vir- ginia, and received a limited education under private tutors. After his father's death and his return to Virginia, he was em- ployed, commencing at a very earlv age, upon a farm, and in due time became its manager, producing large quantities of cot- ton, corn and tobacco. He was a major in the state militia, and when the war between the states began he enlisted in Company D, Fifty-eighth Virginia Infantry, of which he was made orderly sergeant, and later pro- moted to second lieutenant. After the battle of McDowell's Station he was stricken with typhoid fever, which caused his death in 1862. He married Temperance Ward, and they had children : i. Sarah, born 1847, died 1Q06; married, 1870, B. S. Webb, and was the mother of: i. Robert Bruce, who mar-