The Wife of D.J. Stearns

Working in cemeteries for the past few years, we have noticed that the headstones it lists the husband and then "Polly wife of D.J. Stearns". Ever wonder who this wife and mother were?  

In this bicentennial year much has been written about the Stearns family and David Johnson Stearns, but who was Mary “Polly” Barnum Stearns.

Polly was the daughter of Captain John and Sally Parish Barnum of Ridgeville Ohio. John received his commission in the Revolutionary War. She had six siblings; Zenus, Heman, Sally, Betsy, Henry F, John. 

    

The Barnum family descends from the Old English aristocracy. The name has been spelled: Barnam; Barnham; Burnham; Burnam in the early English History.  

“Thomas Barnam, Immigrant ancestor was one of the first eight settlers of the town of Danbury Connecticut.”¹

The name of Thomas’s first wife is unknown, second he married Sarah Thompson Hurd. They had seven children. The two that we are noting are First Thomas II the great grandfather of, Phineas Taylor (PT) Barnum, and Second Ebenezer Sr.  Ebenezer was born in 1862 in Danbury Connecticut and married Abigail Skeels in 1710. They had six children. The oldest of them was Ebenezer II who married Elizabeth Skiffe and are the parents of Captain John Barnum.

In the Stearns and the Barnum families there are many members that have served in the military and public service to build this country.

Happy Bicentennial North Olmsted

¹Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut  

William Richard Cutter A.M Editor