Sterling, Charles Bolivar, 1825-

Charles Bolivar Sterling was born in Ouachita, Louisiana in 1825. In the mid 1830s, his family moved to Kentuky where he attended the Lafayette Seminary in Louisville. While a child, Sterling spent lots of time at "Sterlington," the plantation owned by his uncle John T. Sterling (in what is now Sterlington, Louisiana). In 1843 he joined the U.S. Navy and served on the ships Ontario and Nonesuch; during the Mexican War he served on the the sloop-of-war Preble with the Pacific Squadron. He left the Navy in late fall of 1847, and soon found employment with Thomas Oliver Larkin in Monterrey, Calif.

From the description of Papers of Charles Bolivar Sterling, 1847, Aug.-Sep. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 228740653