L. A. Stearns, physician and surgeon, engaged in practicing at Coon Rapids, is a native of the State of Maine, born July 5, 1846, a son of L. E. and Hannah (Walker) Stearns. When he was four years of age his parents removed to Rockford, Illinois, and there he was reared and educated. During the war of the Rebellion he enlisted in Company G, Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and participated in several noted battles of the war. He was taken prisoner at Big Shanty, and confined in the rebel prisons at Andersonville, Milan and Florence. He was finally paroled and ordered to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, where he was honorably discharged in July, 1865, after which he returned to Rockford, Illinois. He attended lectures at Bennett Eclectic Medical College, at Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from that institution in the class of 1877 and 1878, receiving the degree of M. D. He was united in marriage, in 1874, to Miss Linda Faulkner, of Rockford, Illinois, and to this union have been born two children — Lee and Genevieve. Dr. Stearns practiced medicine in Tama County many years where he was numbered among the leading physicians, and there built up a large and lucrative practice. He makes a specialty of asthma and catarrh, and in the treatment of these diseases he has been remarkably successful. In November, 1886, he came with his family to Carroll County, locating at Coon Rapids, where he bids fair to rank among the leading physicians of the place, and by his genial disposition has already won many friends in his new home. The doctor is a member of the Legion of Honor.

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