Charles Hazelius Sternberg was born near Cooperstown, New York to Reverend Levi Sternberg and Margaret Levering Miller. At the age of 17, Sternberg moved to Ellsworth County, Kansas where his older brother, Dr. George M. Sternberg (1838–1915), worked as a military surgeon at Fort Harker and owned a ranch. Once there, Sternberg became interested in collecting fossil leaves from the Dakota Sandstone Formation. From 1875-1876, Sternberg studied at Kansas State University under noted paleontologist Benjamin Franklin Mudge, though Sternberg never earned a degree.