Dr. Stearnes was born in Sutton, Massachusetts, educated locally, and entered Yale University in 1849. He attended medical lectures at Harvard and Yale, and received a B.A. (1853) and M.D. (1855) from Yale. He spent the next two years continuing his medical education in Edinburgh and Paris. He returned to Marlboro, MA, where he practiced medicine until 1859, and then he moved to Hartford, CT.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Dr. Stearnes was commissioned in the Union Army, serving in various posts and hospitals until 1865. After the war, he returned to a successful private practice in Hartford. In 1874, he was named Superintendent of the Hartford Retreat, where he remained until shortly before his death. He made many improvements at the retreat, including establishing a “cottage system” he had observed during his trip to Great Britain.
Dr. Stearnes was a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale (1875–97) and published numerous monographs and reports on insanity. He served as President of the Connecticut Medical Society (1898–99) and was active in veteran and civic organizations. He was an honorary member of the British Medico-Psychological Society and President of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (1890–91).