Jacob Stumm
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Lilley
In office
31 May 1913 – 26 March 1917
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byGeorge Mackay
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Gympie
In office
28 March 1896 – 11 March 1899
Serving with William Smyth
Preceded byAndrew Fisher
Succeeded byAndrew Fisher
Personal details
Born(1853-08-26)26 August 1853
Free City of Frankfurt
Died23 January 1921(1921-01-23) (aged 67)
Gympie, Queensland, Australia
Political partyLiberal
Other political
affiliations		Ministerial
Spouse
Margaret Pride
​
(m. 1878)​
OccupationJournalist

Jacob Stumm (26 August 1853 – 23 January 1921) was an Australian politician. He was a Ministerialist member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the seat of Gympie from 1896 to 1899 and a Commonwealth Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for Lilley from 1913 to 1917.

Early life and career

Stumm was born in the Free City of Frankfurt, but was brought to his Australia by his parents at the age of 2 and raised in Toowoomba, Queensland, where he was educated at public schools. He moved to Gympie at the age of 15 and lived there for the rest of his life, with the exception of a few years at Maryborough. He worked as a Hansard reporter and worked as a journalist for The Gympie Times before purchasing the newspaper in partnership with A. G. Ramsey in 1880. Stumm subsequently took on the newspaper's editorship.[1][2][3] He was also a member of the Ambulance Brigade Committee, Fire Brigade Board and Gympie Turf Club Committee and the School of Arts and Technical College Committee.[1] Stumm used his newspaper to campaign against the sitting member for Gympie, Andrew Fisher (who later became Labor's second Prime Minister of Australia), accusing Fisher of being a dangerous revolutionary and an anti-Catholic.[4][5]

State and federal politics

Stumm ran against Fisher for his Gympie seat as in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland at the 1896 colonial election, contesting as a Ministerialist, and won. However, he retired from parliament in 1899 after only one term, citing a need to attend to his business interests and his frustration with "the growing tendency to make the Legislative Assembly a mere House of Talk".[6][7][8]

Stumm returned to his business interests after his retirement from state politics. He was involved in the formation of the Wide Bay Dairy Co-Operative Ltd in 1906 and served on its board of directors, later serving several years as chairman.[9][1][10] He also had significant interests in mining investments. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Wide Bay at the 1910 federal election.[11][12]

In 1913, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Commonwealth Liberal Party member for the new seat of Lilley and was re-elected in 1914.[1] Stumm encountered substantial prejudice during World War I as a consequence of his German birth, and he spoke out publicly in 1917 about the "humiliating treatment" he had received.[13][14] He subsequently retired from parliament at the 1917 election, having had to be talked out of resigning and causing a by-election earlier that year.[15][16]

Later life

After his retirement he again returned to The Gympie Times, which he had continued to own throughout, though he had ceded the editorship to his brother, A. L. Stumm.[1] Stumm died in 1921 in the Gympie Hospital after suffering a brain hemorrhage in The Gympie Times' office the previous day. He was buried in Gympie Cemetery.[1][17]

He married Margaret Pride in 1878, and they had five sons and four daughters. His daughter Annie married future general and senator William Glasgow in 1904.[18][19][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "DEATH OF MR. JACOB STUMM". The Brisbane Courier. Queensland, Australia. 25 January 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  2. ^ "THE CANDIDATES". The North Queensland Register. Queensland, Australia. 1 April 1896. p. 40. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "MR. JACOB STUMM". The Week. Queensland, Australia. 28 January 1921. p. 23. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  4. ^ Day, D. (2008). Andrew Fisher: prime minister of Australia. HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 978-0-7322-7610-2.
  5. ^ a b "Media Mogul of Yesteryear: Jacob John Stumm 1853-1921". Gympie Region Heritage Trails. Gympie Regional Council. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  6. ^ "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  7. ^ "To the Electors of Gympie". Gympie Times And Mary River Mining Gazette. Queensland, Australia. 3 January 1899. p. 2. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  8. ^ "LOCAL AND GENERAL". The North Queensland Register. Queensland, Australia. 22 January 1896. p. 41. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  9. ^ "LISMORE AND DISTRICT". The Brisbane Courier. Queensland, Australia. 17 July 1906. p. 2. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  10. ^ "MR. JACOB STUMM DEAD". The Daily Telegraph. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  11. ^ "Wide Bay". Gympie Times And Mary River Mining Gazette. Queensland, Australia. 19 February 1910. p. 3. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  12. ^ "DEATH OF MR. JACOB STUMM". The Daily Mail. Queensland, Australia. 25 January 1921. p. 7. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  13. ^ "VICTIMS OF HATE". Daily Standard. Queensland, Australia. 12 January 1917. p. 4 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  14. ^ "Of German Descent". Chronicle And North Coast Advertiser. Queensland, Australia. 19 January 1917. p. 5. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  15. ^ "Political Points". Gympie Times And Mary River Mining Gazette. Queensland, Australia. 24 March 1917. p. 5. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  16. ^ "LILLEY ELECTORATE". The Daily Mail. Queensland, Australia. 23 February 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
  17. ^ Welcome to the Gympie Cemetery Mapping Portal Archived 15 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine – Gympie Cemetery Trust. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  18. ^ Harry, Ralph (1983). "Glasgow, Sir Thomas William (1876–1955)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 9 December 2007.
  19. ^ "OBITUARY MRS. JACOB STUMM". The Week. Queensland, Australia. 19 June 1925. p. 24. Retrieved 22 December 2019 – via Trove.
Parliament of Australia Preceded byNew seat Member for Lilley 1913–1917 Succeeded byGeorge Mackay Parliament of Queensland Preceded byAndrew Fisher Member for Gympie 1896–1899 Served alongside: William Smyth Succeeded byAndrew Fisher
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