Stearns, Samuel

Stearns, Samuel, a Congregational minister, son of the preceding, was born at Epping, N.H., April 8, 1770. He fitted for college at Exeter Academy, entered Dartmouth in 1790, whence he removed in his junior year to Cambridge, and graduated at Harvard in 1794. He studied theology under Rev. Jonathan French, of Andover, and was ordained minister of the town of Bedford April 27, 1795. On Nov. 14, 1831, a vote was passed in town meeting to occupy the pulpit for a certain number of Sundays during the ensuing winter with Unitarian preachers. A new society was consequently formed under the name of the Trinitarian Congregational Society, June 5, 1833; and Mr. Stearns became its minister, which connection he held till his death, Dec. 26, 1834. He published six occasional Sermons and Discourses (1807-22), and an Address (1815). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 1, 579.