Samuel Stearns

Born in Bolton, Massachusetts, in 1741, Samuel Stearns became known as both a physician and an astronomer. He settled in Paxton, Massachusetts, and issued The North-American Almanack year after year, building a reputation as a learned and unusually versatile figure in early America.

His life took a hard turn during the Revolutionary era. According to the American Antiquarian Society, he was labeled a Tory, his medical practice suffered, and he was jailed more than once. He later lived under British protection in New York, then returned to New England after the war. In 1782 he published what the Society describes as the first nautical almanac printed in America.

Stearns spent his later years writing and publishing across several fields. His works included The American Oracle, a travel account of Europe, and American Herbal in 1801. He also devoted decades to a large medical reference work that remained unfinished when he died in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1809.