Marcellus Stearns

Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns
11th Governor of Florida
In office
March 18, 1874 – January 2, 1877
Lieutenant Vacant
Preceded by Ossian B. Hart
Succeeded by George Franklin Drew
5th Lieutenant Governor of Florida
In office
January 7, 1873 – March 18, 1874
Governor Ossian B. Hart
Preceded by Samuel T. Day
Succeeded by Noble A. Hull
Member of the Florida House of Representatives
In office
1868–1872
Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (1869)
Personal details
Born (1839-04-29)April 29, 1839
Lovell, Maine
Died December 8, 1891(1891-12-08) (aged 52)
Palatine Bridge, New York
Resting place Center Lovell, Maine
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) None
Profession Lawyer

Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns (April 29, 1839 – December 8, 1891) was an American politician, who served from 1874 to 1877 as the 11th Governor of Florida during the Reconstruction Era.

Born in Lovell in Oxford County in southwestern Maine, he attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine. In 1861, he left to join the Union Army and lost an arm during the Battle of Opequon in Winchester, Virginia, after which the Army sent him to study law. He was assigned to Quincy in Gadsden County in the Florida Panhandle, where he remained after his discharge from the military.

Stearns was a member of the Florida Constitutional Convention of 1868 and the Florida House of Representatives from 1868 through 1872, of which he was the Speaker in 1869. He was elected the fifth Lieutenant Governor of Florida in 1872.

He succeeded to the governorship on March 18, 1874 at age 34 years old (currently remains the state's youngest Governor) when Ossian B. Hart died of pneumonia. Stearns attempted to force Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs to resign his post as Superintendent of Public Instruction, but was unsuccessful due to Gibbs' immense popularity. After leaving office on January 2, 1877, he was appointed U. S. Commissioner in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a post that he held until 1880. He died in Palatine Bridge, New York, fifty miles from the capital city of Albany. He is interred in the village of Center Lovell, Maine.

After he left office on 2 January 1877, there was no Republican governor of Florida until 1967, when Claude Kirk was inaugurated.

Political offices
Preceded by
Samuel T. Day		 Lieutenant Governor of Florida
1873–1874		 Succeeded by
Noble A. Hull
Preceded by
Ossian B. Hart		 Governor of Florida
1874–1877		 Succeeded by
George F. Drew
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