Levi Stearns was born around 1805 in Maine. He married Eliza Ann Stearns, and they had at least two children: Ellen, born around 1840; and Justice, born around 1847. They lived in Hingham, Massachusetts, and he worked as a trader. By 1850, they owned $900 of real estate. They moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, in the 1850s, and he worked as a mariner. By 1860, he owned $1,500 of personal property. He died sometime after 1860.