USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 15
USA > Wyoming > Genealogical and family history of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 15
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2. Hon. William Walter Phelps, born Au- gust 24, 1839. Entered Yale College, 1855, graduated A. B., 1860. taking highest honors. He studied law at Columbia Law School, grad- uated LL. B. 1863 ; was elected member forty- third Congress, 1873, from New Jersey, where he located ; appointed American Minister to the Austrian Court, 1887 ; re-elected member for the forty-eighth, forty-ninth and fiftieth Congresses ; member Samoian Commission, 1889; American Minister to Berlin 1892; director of and inter- ested in many important banking and other corporations in New York City.
H. E. H.
ZIBA BENNETT FAMILY. Among the older stock of Bennetts who were identified with the history of the Wyoming valley, Judge Ziba Bennett was one of the best representatives of the family, and one of the first to settle in the region. Neither he nor his family were classed with the pioneers, but in the various avocations of life in later years both he and his descendants have been associated with the best business and professional interests of Luzerne county.
This branch of the Bennett family is de- scended from James Bennett, an Englishman by birth, who was made a freeman in Concord, Massachusetts, May 13, 1639, and whose wife was Hannah Wheeler (married 1639), daugh- ter of Lieut. Thomas Wheeler and his wife Ann. He removed with his wife and her par- ents from Concord to Fairfield, in the colony
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of Connecticut, and died there in 1659. James took the freeman's oath in Connecticut in 1648. Hannah, his widow, subsequently married Joseph Middlebrook. James Hannah (Wheeler) Bennett had the following children : Thomas, born October 16, 1642; Hannah, born June 1, 164 -: John, married Mary Thompson ; James; Sarah, married John Osborn, of Fair- field, and died in 1709.
Thomas Bennett, eldest child of James and Hannah (Wheeler) Bennett, was born October 16, 1642; married Elizabeth Thompson, born 1645, daughter of John Thompson, of Pequon- nock, Connecticut, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sherwood. Their children were : Thomas, John, James, Peter, Sarah, who married Samuel Stewart; and Hannah, who mar- ried Henry Hendrick.
Thomas Bennett, eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Thompson) Bennett, married Sarah Hubbard, daughter of William Hubbard, of Greenwich, Connecticut, 1670, who revised law of 1667. He was a son of George Hubbard, of Guilford, Connecticut, freeman 1669, a commis- sioner for Guilford 1665-66-76 with magisterial powers, and deputy to the general court 1665. Their children were: Thomas, Deliverance, Sa- rah, Tabitha, Martha, Ruth, Ebenezer, Hannah, James, Peter and Mary.
Deliverance Bennett, second child of Thomas and Sarah (Hubbard) Bennett, was born De- cember, 1688, died April 18, 1761. He married, in Fairfield, Connecticut, March 15, 1708, Mary Biggs, born October, 1688, died April 14, 1761. They were both members of Greensfarms Church, Fairfield county, Connecticut, before 1741. Their children were: William, born Jan- uary 8, 1710; Daniel, born November 11, 1711; Sarah, born July 8, 1716, married John Allen ; Eunice, born October 24, 1718; Benjamin, born July 2, 1721; Samuel born August 24, 1723; Moses, born April 8, 1727, married Eunice Hollibut ; Rachel, born October II, 1729.
William Bennett, eldest child of Deliverance and Mary (Biggs) Bennett, married, in Fair- field, August. 1733, Abigail Hickock, born 1716, died December 30, 1800, aged eighty-three
years. After the death of William Bennett she married Mr. Morehouse. She was a daughter of Deacon Benjamin Hickock, of Samuel and his wife Hannah Skeel, daughter of John Skeel, all of Woodbury, Connecticut. John Skeel's wife was Hannah, daughter of Roger Fenill, of Woodbury, where he died April 17, 1722. William and Abigail Bennett had the follow- ing named children, all born in Fairfield: Sarah, born March 17. 1734, married Jabez Lockwood ; Thaddeus, born June 22, 1736; Deliverance, born February 27. 1738: William, born July 5, 1741 : Mary, born August 25, 1743; Joseph, born September 17, 1745; Stephen, born De- cember 18, 1747; Abigail, born December 30, 1749, married Samuel Smith.
Thaddeus Bennett, eldest son of William and Abigail (Hickock) Bennett, was born June 22, 1736, died January 20, 1823, and was buried near Weston, Connecticut. He married, April 15, 1761, Mary Platt, born April 15, 1742, died October 2, 1819. She was a daughter of Eb- enezer and Tabitha Hickock Platt, granddaugh- ter of John Platt, Jr., of Newtown, Connecticut. who was a son of Deacon Josiah and grandson of Deacon Richard Platt, of Milford, Connecti- cut. The wife of Josiah Platt was Sarah, daugh- ter of Sergeant Thomas Canfield, or Camfield, of Milford, brother of Matthew, who was named in the charter of Charles II of Con- necticut. Thomas Canfield was deputy from Milford to the general court of Connecticut 1674-76.
Platt Bennett, third . child of Thaddeus and Mary (Platt) Bennett, was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, July 28, 1770, died in Horseheads, New York, April 22, 1848, and was buried at Elmira, New York. He married, July 29. 1791. his cousin, Martha Wheeler, born March 16. 1771, died at Horseheads, New York, Septem- ber 2, 1844. and she lies beside her husband. She was a daughter of Calvin and Mary (Thorpe) Wheeler, granddaughter of Ephraim Wheeler and his wife Martha Bulkeley, who de -- scended from the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, of Con- cord, Massachusetts, through Daniel and Han- nah (Bartram) Bulkeley, Joseph and Martha
=
R. Nelson
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(Beers) Bulkeley, Thomas and Sarah (Jones) Bulkeley, Rev. Peter and Jane (Allen) Bulke- ley, deriving his lineage from Sir Thomas Allen, of Goldington, England; Rev. Peter Jones, of Fairfield, Connecticut, and Capt. Richard Beers, who was slain in King Philip's war, 1675. Ephraim Wheeler was son
of Joseph Wheeler and his wife Deborah Nichols, daugh- ter of Ensign Ephraim Nichols and his wife Esther, daughter of Dr. William and grand- daughter of Andrew of Fairfield, one of the most prominent citizens of the col- ony of Connecticut. Joseph Wheeler, father of Ephraim, was a son of Capt. John Wheeler and grandson of Lieut. Thomas Wheeler, whose daughter married James Bennett, another of this family.
Judge Ziba Bennett, fourth child of Platt and Martha (Wheeler) Bennett, was born in Weston, Connecticut, November 10, 1800, died in Wilkes-Barre, November 4, 1878. He mar- ried (first), in Wilkes-Barre, November 25, 1824, Hannah Fell Slocum, born April 16, 1802, died February 5, 1855, daughter of Hon. Joseph Slocum and his wife Sarah Fell. Ziba and Han- nah had children: Joseph Platt, born June 4, 1828, died June 8, 1829: Martha Wheeler, born August 2, 1833, married John Case Phelps (see Phelps Family), and George Slocum, born Au- gust 17, 1842. Ziba Bennett married (second), November 18, 1856, Priscilla E. Lee, daughter of James Stewart Lee, of Nanticoke, Pennsyl- vania, son of Capt. Andrew Lee, of the "Pax- tung Boys," who served in the Revolutionary army 1775-83.
Ziba Bennett's early business training was in a measure moulded by the guiding influence of Col. Matthias Hollenback, but in laying the foundation for his subsequent career in life he built for himself. He worked out his own edu- cation, and perhaps would have turned to farm- ing pursuits had not Colonel Hollenback's in- fluence prevailed with Ziba's father, and led the young man to take a clerkship in Elmira. He came thence to Wilkes-Barre in 1815 and was employed in the main Hollenback store on South Main street. In 1822 he became partner with
George M. Hollenback (son of the colonel) in a general merchandise business. In 1826 he purchased the general store and property of Stephen Tuttle on North Main street and succeeded to the business formerly con- ducted by Mr. Tuttle. He soon became recognized as one of the leading merchants of the Wyoming valley, a man of excellent business qualities, careful, industrious and enterprising, of unquestioned integrity and straightforward honesty, giving to every man his just due, and exacting from no man one farthing more than his due. He was engaged in business for sixty years, and until the time of his death, being then head of the firm of Ziba Bennett & Company. He was the oldest merchant in Luzerne county. His business perceptions were unusually clear and his judgment always sound, and regardless of the fact that he was one of the most cautious of men he readily discovered the avenues of wealth and so boldly entered them that he suc- ceeded in amassing a large fortune.
In 1833 Mr. Bennett was a member of the lower house of the state legislature, and car- ried with him into public life the same fidelity to the interests of the commonwealth he showed in the care of his personal affairs. He took an earnest interest in the educational bill which was under consideration during his term of of- fice, and was arrayed with the friends of the advanced standard. He was a member of the reform convention which met in Harrisburg in 1834, when the subject of constitutional revis- ion was under consideration, and took an active part in its proceedings and deliberations. He was one of the founders of the Wyoming Bank of Wilkes-Barre, one of its directors from the date of organization in 1829 until his death, and its president nearly ten years. He was for some years president of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, and of the Hollenback Cemetery As- sociation. He was an incorporator of the Wilkes-Barre Gas Company, the Wilkes-Barre Water Company, the Miners' Savings Bank, the Home for Friendless Children, and other benev- olent institutions. In 1842 Mr. Bennett was associate judge of Luzerne county, sitting on
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the bench with that most distinguished member of our county judiciary, Hon. John Nesbitt Conyngham, LL. D. He was also an early mem- ber of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, and one of its vice-presidents from 1874 to 1878. In 1862 Judge Bennett founded and was senior member of the private banking house of Bennett, Phelps & Company, and was its active head until his death. For more than half a century he was a devout and useful mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the donor to the society of the lands in Franklin street on which the Methodist Episcopal Church edifice now stands, and of his means he con- tributed liberally to the support of the church and also to the maintenance of several religious and charitable institutions. In personal appear- ance and manners he was a gentleman of the old school, courtly and gracious, kind and gen- erous.
George Slocum Bennett, third child of Judge Ziba and Hannah Fell (Slocum) Bennett, was born August 17, 1842, married, September 7, 1871, Ellen Woodward Nelson, daughter of the Rev. Reuben Nelson, D. D.,1 and his wife,
1. Reuben Nelson, A. M., D. D., was born in An- des, New York, December 16, 1818, and died in New York City, February 20, 1879. His early education was obtained at Hartwick Seminary, a Lutheran school in Otsego county, New York. From 1840 to 1842 he was acting principal of the Otsego Academy in Coopertown, New York, and in 1842 was appointed its principal. During these years he was preaching as well as teaching -being assigned circuit work in the Oneida conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
On July 28, 1842, he married, at Milford, Otsego county, New York, Jane Scott Eddy, a daughter of Colonel Asa Eddy, of that place.
In 1844 Wyoming Seminary was established at Kingston, Pennsylvania, and the trustees were particu- larly fortunate in securing as its first principal Reuben Nelson, then a young man, twenty-six years of age. With the exception of one year, when he was presiding elder of the Wyoming district, he was principal until 1872. He held the office of presiding elder 1864-67, and 1869-71. As principal of the seminary Dr. Nelson's suc- cess was almost, if not quite, unparalleled in the history of seminaries and other preparatory schools in the coun- try. His ability as a teacher, his executive skill and financial wisdom, his indomitable perseverance, his great
Jane Scott Eddy. Mr. Bennett was educated at Wesleyan University, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, 1864, as a commencement orator, and received his degree of Master of Arts, 1867. He is a member of the Psi Upsilon and the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternities. He en- gaged with his father in the banking business in Wilkes-Barre in the firm of Bennett, Phelps & Company. The enterprise failed during a season of financial depression, but the house subsequently paid every dollar of indebtedness in full, with interest. Mr. Bennett has held many positions of usefulness in his city and county, namely : Director of the Wyoming Na-
moral power, his fervid piety, gave him the equipment for his work that made Wyoming Seminary what it is to-day. In 1872 he was elected one of the agents of the Methodist Episcopal Book Concern in New York City, and also treasurer of the Missionary Society of the same church, which office he held at the time of his death. He was a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church five times, to-wit, 1860- 64-68-72-76, the last three times leading the delegation. In 1876 he was chairman of the committee on episcopacy at the general conference that year. In recognition of Dr. Nelson's ability as a teacher he received the degree of A. M. from Union College, and in recognition of his eloquence as a preacher the degree of D. D. from Dickin- son College.
Dr. Nelson was a man of great natural energy and character, and yet was calm, quiet and not very demon- strative. He was systematic and exact in business habits, and by virtue of his strong personality had great influence over young men. However, valuable as was the work he may have accomplished in New York and elsewhere, his great work-his life work-was done at Wyoming Seminary. The last years of his life-from the age of twenty-six to fifty-four were spent there- years remarkable for persistent energy and indomitable will, and this school will always stand as Dr. Nelson's monument. In 1883, four years after Dr. Nelson's death, Mrs. Nelson, "in consideration of the desire and purpose to aid and benefit the seminary to which the lab- ors of her husband were for many years devoted," deeded to the school the house built by Dr. Nelson where he resided prior to his election as book agent in New York. This gift was in full accord with the noble impulse of one who did her full share in making sure the success of the institution and all the efforts of her husband in its hehalf. In 1887 the Nelson Memorial Chapel was erected by friends of the institution as a memorial of Dr. Nelson.
Gro. S. Bennet.
R. Nelson Bennett.
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tional Bank. 1864-1905, and president since 1895; superintendent of the First Methodist Episcopal Sunday School, 1868-1905, having been a member of the church since boyhood ; member of the Wilkes-barre city council, 1868-70; manager of the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company, 1869-1905. and treasurer from 1876 to 1905 ; president of the Wilkes-Barre Young Men's Christian Association in 1871, and mem- ber of the board of managers from 1871 to 1887; trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church from 1874 to 1905; member of the Wilkes- Barre school board from 1870 to 1873, from 1879 to 1882, and its president in 1883; man- ager of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital from 1876 to 1905, also its vice-president : manager of the Hollenback Cemetery Association from 1878 to 1905; secretary of the Luzerne County Bible Society from 1879 to 1905; trustee of the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, from 1873 to 1905, and president of the board from 1888 to 1905; president of the Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Company, 1887-88, and a di- rector from 1891 to 1905; treasurer of the Shel- don Axle Company from 1886 to 1888; director of the Wilkes-Barre Gas Company from 1893 to 1898; director of the Hazard Manufacturing Company from 1895 to 1905, and the Wilkes- Barre Water Company in 1895 : trustee of Wes- leyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, from 1888 to 1905, and Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey, from 1888 to 1905 ; mem- ber of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre; delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Cleveland. 1896. George Slocum and Ellen Woodward (Nelson) Bennett were the parents of three children: Martha Phelps, born Oc- tober 16, 1873, married, June 15, 1899, Law- rence Bullard Jones, attorney-at-law, Wilkes- Barre, son of the Rev. Dr. Henry Lawrence and Sarahı (Coffin) Jones. (See Jones family.) He graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Yale, and was admitted to the bar. Their children are : Henry Lawrence and George Ben- nett Jones.
Reuben Nelson, born December 12, 1875,
graduated Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Wesleyan in 1897, LL. B. from University of Pennsylvania in 1900 and was admitted to the bar. He is a member of the Psi Upsilon Fra- ternity, and fourth vice-president of the Wilkes- Barre board of trade. 1904, and member of the select council of the city of Wilkes-Barre, 1905.
Ziba Platt, born March 22, 1881, graduated as Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan in 1903. He is a member of Psi Upsilon and Phi Beta Kappa Fraternities, and is a member of the firm of Phelps, Lewis & Company, the successors to the business founded in 1826 by his grand- father, Hon. Ziba Bennett. H. E. H.
STEARNS FAMILY. In the history of the Wyoming valley the branch of the Stearns family of which this narrative treats dates only from the year 1869, when Irving A. Stearns, of the department of analytical chemistry in the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, left that famous school and took up new duties in Wilkes-Barre, in the office of R. P. Rothwell, mining and civil engineer.
Mr. Stearns comes of New England stock, his ancestry in America dating from the early days of the Puritans, and almost to the time of the Pilgrim Fathers. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Charles Stearns, who was admitted freeman in Watertown in 1646 ;. was the owner of a house, lot and other lands; was elected (1680) tax-gatherer and also con- stable, but refused to take the oath. He then sold his lands in Watertown and moved to Lynn End. now the town of Lynnfield. There is a tradition in Lynn, says the Stearns genealogy, that three brothers, Daniel, Isaac and Shubael, came from England to America in 1630 and set- tled near Watertown ; that Daniel died unmar- ried ; that Shubael and Isaac each brought their families with them ; that soon after landing both Shubael and his wife died, leaving two sons, Charles and Nathaniel, who were reared by their Uncle Isaac; that these sons afterward married, as well as Isaac their uncle, and that from them all the Stearns in America are supposed to have
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descended. There is also a traditional anecdote of the first landing of the Stearns family, "that on reaching anchorage in America, Isaac, like the spies sent into Canaan, went forward and selected a place of settlement ; soon after, an emulation arose between the two boys as to which should step on land first, and as they sprang from the boat Charles missed his foot- ing and fell into the river, which was therefore named Charles river." Nevertheless, the his- torian claims for the name of the stream a royal origin.
From Charles Stearns (I), the founder of that branch of the family under consideration, the line of descent follows to John (2), 1657- 1722; George (3), 1688-1765; Jonathan (4), 1713-1758; Ebenezer (5), 1745-1834: Ariel or Royal (6), 1776-1827; George W. (7), 1821- 1892; Irving Ariel (8), 1845.
George W. Stearns, father of Major Stearns, was born May 14, 1821; married October 13, 1841, Miranda Tufts, born February 5, 1819, daughter of Thomas and Clarissa (Hatfield) Tufts,1 of Gorham, Ontario county, New York. Mr. Stearns was a farmer, justice of the peace and justice of sessions (an office at one time of considerable dignity, but now abolished) of Ontario county two terms. In 1867 he removed to Coldwater, Michigan, where for several years before his death he was editor and publisher of the Coldwater Republican. He died February 10, 1892; his wife died January 2, 1901. They had two children : Clarissa Arminda, born Oc- tober 24, 1842, married September 1, 1870, Abra- ham J. Aldrich, born February 3. 1843, and Irving Ariel Stearns, of Wilkes-Barre, Penn- sylvania.
Irving Ariel Stearns,2 born September 12,
1845, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1868; was assistant professor of ana- lytical chemistry for one year after graduation, and resigned in 1869 to accept a position in the office of R. P. Rothwell, mining and civil engineer of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. From August, 1871, to August, 1872, was superintend- ent and engineer of the McNeal Coal and Iron Company of Schuylkill county. He resigned this position to succeed Mr. Rothwell, who went to New York to take charge of the Engineering and Mining Journal as editor and part owner. From August, 1872, to June, 1885, Mr. Stearns conducted a general engineering business, in- cluding the construction of a railroad and wagon bridge across the Susquehanna river at Shick- shinney ; an iron bridge across the Susquehanna at Pittston; the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany's tift farm improvements at Buffalo, New York, consisting of ship canals, docks, coal storage plant, etc., besides various collieries in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. Dur- ing the same period he made numerous examina- tions and reports upon mining properties and enterprises in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Vir- ginia, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. In 1885 he was appointed manager of the various coal companies controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and held that position until July, 1897, when he resigned and was made president of the Cross Creek Coal Company ; Coxe Brothers & Company, incorpo- rated : the Delaware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill Railroad Company, and the Coxe Iron Manu- facturing Company, which positions he still holds.
Mr. Stearns is also a director in the Wyo- ming National Bank, the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, the Standard Trust Company, the Hibbard-Ely Safe Company of New York, the Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad Company. the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company and the Temple Iron Company. He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers: the American Society of Civil Engineers ; the Penn-
I. Miranda Tufts, who married George W. Stearns, was a daughter of Thomas Tufts and his wife Clarissa Jatfield ; and Hannah Tyler, who married Thomas Tufts, of West Brookfield. Massachusetts, father of above Thomas, was a daughter of Lieutenant Abner Tyler, the revolutionary soldier.
2. This sketch of Major Stearns is largely taken from "Stearns Genealogy and Memoirs," 1901, by Avis (Stearns) Van Wagenen.
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sylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution ;1 the Westmoreland and Wyoming Valley Country Clubs of Wilkes-Barre, and was the first presi- dent of the first named ; and is a member of the Union League University and Engineers' Clubs of New York, and Union League Club of Phil- adelphia. Mr. Stearns is a member of the Penn- sylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, of which he has been curator of geology and is now one of its vice-presidents. He was commissioned quartermaster of the Ninth Regi- ment March 29, 1880; was promoted to major on May 15, 1884, and resigned April 1, 1885. He has taken a very active interest in the Ninth Regiment Armory Association of Wilkes-Barre, of which he is president. On June 29, 1892, he became one of five trustees of the association, an account of which body appears in the histor- ical souvenir of the regiment, published in 1896. In connection with Hon. Charles Miner and Col. Murray G. Reynolds (since deceased, see sketches on other pages) Major Stearns raised the amount necessary to liquidate the mortgage on the property. Portraits of Major Stearns and his son, Captain Stearns, appear in con- nection with this narrative. Major Stearns mar- ried, November 20, 1872, Miss Clorinda W. Shoemaker, daughter of Hon. Lazarus Denison Shoemaker (See Shoemaker family) and his wife, Esther Wadhams. She died May 6, 1904. Their children were:
Lazarus Denison Stearns, born December 27. 1875, died September 6, 1898.
Irving Ariel Stearns, Jr., born July 5, 1877, died April 9, 1884.
Esther Shoemaker Stearns, born March 4: 1885.
Capt. Lazarus Denison Stearns, son of Major Irving Ariel Stearns, was born in Wilkes-Barre. His early education was gained at the Harry
Hillman Academy in Wilkes-Barre, and he pre- pared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and graduated from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, in the class of 1896. On coming home he became a coal inspector for the Susquehanna Coal Company, and afterward served with the engineer corps of the same company. He was early imbued with a strong desire to enter the military serv- ice, and had received instruction in military tac- tics at Yale. He enlisted as a private in Com- pany D, Ninth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, February 4, 1897, and July Ist of the same year was chosen second lieutenant of Company B. The entire division of the Na- tional Guard of Pennsylvania having been or- dered into camp at Mount Gretna, Pennsylva- nia, by the governor in response to the first call call for troops by the president for the war with Spain, Lieutenant Stearns left Wilkes-Barre with his command on April 27, 1898. May 4th he volunteered for the war on the field at Mount Gretna. The captain of the company (Stewart L. Barnes) being disqualified for entering on active service on account of age, Second Lieu- tenant Stearns was unanimously chosen by the men to command the company, and was mus- tered into the service of the United States with the rank of captain, May II, 1898. He was the youngest officer of his grade and command in the First Army Corps, to which his regiment was assigned at Camp George H. Thomas, Chickamauga Park, Georgia, on arriving there May 20, 1898.
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