Amos A. Stearns

Amos A. Stearns was born on April 27, 1844, in Branch County, Michigan, the son of Wilson (b. 1816) and Mary (Furgeson, b. 1818).

New York natives Wilson and Mary were married, possibly in New York. In any case, by 1843 they had settled in Michigan and by 1850 Amos was attending school with his older brother William and living with his family in Coldwater, Branch County, where his father worked as a cooper.

Amos stood 5’10” with gray eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old farmer possibly living in Muskegon County or in Gaines, Kent County when he enlisted in Company K on January 6, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Muskegon or Gaines, and was mustered on January 8 at Corunna, Shiawassee County. Amos joined the Regiment on February 17 at Camp Bullock, Virginia, and was wounded in the foot and missing in action on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, and was subsequently hospitalized. He was still absent wounded when he was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and remained absent wounded through January of 1865.

In fact, Amos entered Mower hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 9, was transferred to Michigan on February 19, and was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

After the war Amos returned to western Michigan. He was married to Michigan native Adelaide A. (b. 1847) and they had at least three children: Luella E. (b. 1874, Mrs. Winegarden), and twins Cleland W. and Clarence A. (b. 1879.

(In 1870 his father and mother were living in Cooper, Kalamazoo County.) By 1880 Amos was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Cooper, Kalamazoo County, near by also lived his parents. Amos eventually settled in Grand Rapids, Kent County, where he lived the rest of his life. By 1894 he was living in the Fourth Ward working as a salesman.

He was married to a second wife, Melissa.

In 1865 he applied for and received a pension (no. 80393).

Amos died of organic heart disease on Tuesday, January 22, 1922, at his home 719 Oakdale in Grand Rapids, and the funeral was held on Friday at 2:00 p.m. at the home. He was buried in Garfield Park cemetery.

In October of 1922 Melissa applied for and received a widow (no. 923612).