STEBBINS 1092 STEEVE3 lively engaged in practice, enjoying largely the public confidence. The Regents of the Uni- versity conferred upon him the honorary de- gree of doctor of medicine in 1812. In 1817 he was elected president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and was deservedly re-elected in 1818, 1819 and 1820. In 1819 Dr. Stearns removed to New York, where he practised for many years, and con- tributed largely to the medical periodicals of the day. Upon the organization of the New Y'ork Academy of Medicine in 1846, its first president was John Stearns, then venerable in professional life. A little more than one year later, on the eighteenth of March, 1848, Dr. Stearns died a martyr to the profession in which he had so long lived, his death occurring as the re- sult of a poisoned wound, in the seventy- ninth year of his age. Sylvester David Willard. From Albany Med. Annals and Biographies, Syl- vester D. Willard, 1864. Stebbins, Nehemiah Delavan (1802-1888) Nehemiah Delavan Stebbins was born in Beekman Township, Dutchess County, New York, February 27. 1802; the eldest son of Lewis and Sarah Delavan Stebbins, a lineal descendant of Rowland Stebbins who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, on the ship Francis and settled at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1634. The boy had a com- mon school education and in 1820-21 worked as a civil engineer in the construction of the Erie Canal, between Rochester and Lockport. After this he studied medicine with Dr. A. F. Oliver, in Penn Yan, Yates County, New York. Later he attended the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons of New York City, and was licensed to practise by the New York State Medical Society. He first settled at Hammondsport, Steuben County, New York, and eventually in Detroit until 1868. when he settled in Southern California. He was a member of the first and second epochs of the Wayne County Medical Society, and a founder of each; a founder of the first and second epochs of the Michigan State Medical Society, and president in 1857-58. He was six feet tall, of spare build, long legs, short body. Pleasant, penetrating blue eyes showed from deep sockets and overhang- ing dense brows; he was quick in movement, gracious in manner, firm in his convictions. He was a lover of all kinds of knowledge for its own sake, as well as for what practical good it accomplished. In his frequent visits to the writer, while staying in Detroit, his first question after being seated was, "What is new within your field of observation?" If anything could be given, he was as delighted as a boy with his first pants. Dr. Stebbins' sanguine, cheery disposition, indefatigable in- dustry, devotion to friends and profound faith in God, Bible and church, were important factors in his success. On June 28, 1832, he married Emily White in Rochester, New Y^ork. She died in 1859. Of their three children, one, Dwight Delavan Stebbins, became a physician, but died young from typhoid infection while serving the sol- diers of the Rebellion. The father died at his brother's home in Dowagiac, Michigan, May 31, 1888. He went to bed well, but never woke to his earthly friends. Leartus Connor. Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc, 1888, Detroit, Mich. Sleeves, James Thomas (1828-1897) James Thomas Sleeves, New Brunswick physician, was of German descent and was born at Hillsboro, N. B., January 25, 1828. Educated at the local school there, at Sack- ville Academy, and at the Baptist Seminary, Fredericton, N. B., he entered on the study of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and graduated from the Uni- versity of the City of N'ew York in the class of 1853. He began the practice of his pro- fession in the parish of Portland, now a part of the city of St. John, in June, 1854, but removed to the city in 1864 and erected a block of buildings, where he resided and practised until 1875, when he was called to the charge of the asylum. He ranked high as a surgeon and obstetrician, and when the general pub- lic hospital was opened at St. John, in 1864, was appointed one of the staff of visiting physicians. He was a member of the first medical council of New Brunswick (1860) under the EngHsh Medical Registration Act, the first president of the New Brunswick Medical Council under the New Brunswick Medical Act of 1880; also vice-president of the Canada Medical Association. In 1892 he visited Great Britain, Ireland and the Con- tinent to see the asylums there, and at other times visited many of the institutions in Can- ada and the United States. In 1889 he was called upon to give expert testimony in a case at San Diego, California. Throughout his asylum career, Dr. Steeves proved himself a worthy successor of Dr. Waddell (q. v.), and during his 20-year service did much toward bringing the New Brunswick institution to its present excellent condition. His death took place at Lancaster on March 3, 1897. Institutional Care of the Insane in th^.U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Kurd. 1917. vol. iv. 590-591.
