Chasteen C. Stumm | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 11, 1848 Airdrie, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | November 9, 1895 (aged 47) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Fairview Cemetery, Staunton, Virginia, U.S. |
| Other names | C .C. Stumm |
| Education | Berea College, Roger Williams University |
| Occupation(s) | Minister, teacher, journalist, editor, newspaper publisher |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Penmen |
Rev. Chasteen C. Stumm (1848–1895) was an American minister, teacher, journalist, editor, and newspaper publisher.[1][2][3] He was from Kentucky, and also lived in Tennessee, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Chasteen C. Stumm was born on April 11, 1848, in Airdrie, Kentucky, a former iron mining town in Muhlenberg County.[3] He was African-American and raised on a farm, where he periodically attended subscription schools.[1] For three sessions he attended a segregated school for White students in Greenville, Kentucky, which caused disruption in the community.[1] Eventually this teacher agreed to give him private lessons, in order to prepare him for college.[1]
In 1871, he attended Berea College for one year; followed by a few years study at the Baptist Theological Institute (later known as Roger Williams University) in Nashville, Tennessee.[3] He had two periods of absence from Roger Williams University due to his health, and in his time off he studied with private teachers.[3]
In 1866, Stumm became a member of the Methodist church.[1] At age 17, he started teaching Sunday school near Paradise in Muhlenberg County.[1] Under the advice of Rev. Samuel Elliott, he joined the A.M.E. Church in Hartford in Ohio County, Kentucky and became a licensed minister.[1] By age 19, he became a teacher, which was unusual during that era.[3]
While he was still attending university, Stumm was asked by a local newspaper editor to report on the proceeding on the convention of the Baptists.[1] As a result, he acted as a correspondent for various newspapers including The Standard (Paducah, Kentucky newspaper), The Pilot (Nashville, Tennessee newspaper), American Baptist (Louisville, Kentucky newspaper), The Tribune (Danville, Kentucky), and the Baptist Companion.[1] He wrote a children's column called "Uncle Charles" for the American Baptist.[1] Stumm also had a column in the Bowling Green Democrat.[1] He published the Bowling Green Watchman for many years,[1] where his wife served as a journalist.
At age 22 around 1870, Stumm built his first church building in Chaplaintown, Kentucky.[1] He had witnessed a religious debate between Methodist and "Campbellite" preachers, which prompted him to look deeper into the Baptist religion and church leadership.[1] He eventually converted to Baptist, joining the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee led by Rev. Nelson G. Merry.[1] Within the year of joining the new church, he was licensed as a minister and a year later he was ordained.[1]
He married Elizabeth Penmen in 1875, a fellow student from Berea.[1] Soon after their marriage, Stumm was called to missionary work to run a church and spent two years at his first station, before being transferred to Elizabethtown, Kentucky.[3] From 1879 to 1881, Stumm was placed as minister of the Independent Baptist Church of Frankfort.[1] This was followed by work at the largest church in the state in Bowling Green, and later work as assistant pastor at the Spruce Street Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.[1] Stumm was briefly the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Boston, Massachusetts but left due to a dislike of the weather.[1] In October 1885, he joined the struggling Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where he increased the size of the congregation and was able to build a new church building.[1]
He was an active participant in the Baptist Ministers' Conference, which was attended by both Black and White clergy.[1] In 1887, he became the editor of the Baptist Monitor, a newspaper by the New England Missionary Convention.[1] In 1890, the Stumms began publishing The Christian Banner, a religious journal, for which he acted as the editor, and his wife served as the business manager.[3] He was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity in 1890 from the University of Louisville.[1]
In 1891, the couple moved to Staunton, Virginia, where Stumm took over the Mount Zion Baptist Church.[4]
He had been sick and was hospitalized in October 1895 at the Freeman's Hospital (now Howard University Hospital) in Washington, D.C.[5] Stumm died on November 9, 1895, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia.[6] He was profiled in the books, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors (1891), and Our Baptist Ministers and Schools (1892).
