Phineas Stearns

(February 5, 1735 – March 27, 1798) 

A farmer and blacksmith from Watertown, Massachusetts, Phineas Stearns had served his country long before the tea crisis in Boston.         

In his book Tea Leaves, historian Francis S. Drake claimed Stearns had joined the French and Indian War in 1756 alongside his younger brother. He was a soldier at Lake George after the British successfully secured the Hudson River Valley the year prior in 1755. He may have served at the Siege of Fort William Henry in 1757 or the Battle of Carillon in 1758. 

Following the Boston Tea Party, Stearns continued his military career, answering the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775. He subsequently participated in the Siege of Boston. General George Washington ordered Stearns to march troops from Watertown, east of Boston, to Dorchester Heights just south of Boston in March of 1776, which led to the Evacuation of Boston. Stearns served for nearly the entire war, with his resignation accepted in April 1780. He remained in Watertown for the remainder of his life. 

Phineas Stearns died in Watertown, MA, on March 27, 1798, and is buried in Watertown’s Common Street Cemetery.