Stearns, Harvey

Born: 1791-02-20 Massachusetts

Died: 1847-11-30 Vermilion County, Illinois

Alternate name: Sterns, Starnes

Born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts, Harvey Stearns was a farmer, soldier, county assessor and collector, and estate manager. He served in the War of 1812, lived in New York for a time, married Fannie Lockwood, and moved to Ohio in 1814. He farmed there until 1832, when he and his family moved to Vermilion County, Illinois, less than twenty miles from Danville. He and his wife had at least eight children together. He served as the county's assessor and collector for many years, and managed the estates of other citizens in the area. By 1840, he still lived in Vermilion County.

Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); 1929 Illinois Roll of Honor, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Lottie E. Jones, History of Vermilion County, Illinois: A Tale of Its Evolution, Settlement and Progress for Nearly a Century (Chicago: Pioneer, 1911), 1:156; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Vermilion County, IL, 132; Gravestone, Davis Cemetery, Fairmount, IL.