He was born March 25, 1826, in Durham, New Hampshire. He was the son of William Stillson and Nancy Chapman. He married Ellen Raynes Davis on April 18, 1855.^[1]

He was a machinist during the American Civil War and served on David Glasgow Farragut's first voyage as a vice admiral. At the end of the Civil War, Stillson returned to Charlestown, Massachusetts, and eventually he moved to Somerville, Massachusetts. He then worked as a machinist at the J. J. Walworth Company in the Cambridgeport section of Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at the J. J. Walworth Company, he developed his pipe wrench.^[2] On September 13, 1870, he was issued his patent. Stillson was paid about $80,000 in royalties during his lifetime.^[3]

He died on August 23, 1899, and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts.

U.S. patent 95,744