[1] Stearns began his career as a teacher in an all girls' seminary in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

[2] Stearns served as the Chancellor of the University of Nashville and President of the Peabody Normal School from 1875 to 1887.

[1][5] His funeral was held by an Episcopal pastor in Nashville,[6] and he was buried in Bedford, Massachusetts.

[7] Meanwhile, he was replaced as Chancellor of the University of Nashville and President of the Peabody Normal School by William H.

[8] A year after his death, in 1888, his portrait by Geo Drury was donated to the Peabody Normal College.