Jacob Stumm (26 August 1853 – 23 January 1921) was an Australian politician. He was a Ministerialist member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

for the seat of

Gympie Gympie ( ) is a city and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. In the Wide Bay-Burnett District, Gympie is about north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city lies on the Mary River (Queen ...

from 1896 to 1899 and a

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fu ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

for Lilley from 1913 to 1917.

Early life and career

Stumm was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, but was brought to his Australia by his parents at the age of 2 and raised in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, where he was educated at public schools. He moved to

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 ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...

'' reporter and worked as a journalist for ''

The Gympie Times ''The Gympie Times'' is an online newspaper serving Gympie in Queensland, Australia. The newspaper is owned by News Corp Australia and was published from Monday to Saturday but ceased printed publication in June of 2020. The final printed ed ...

'' before purchasing the newspaper in partnership with A. G. Ramsey in 1880. Stumm subsequently took on the newspaper's editorship. 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. Stumm used his newspaper to campaign against the sitting member for Gympie,

Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher (29 August 186222 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Australia – from 1908 to 1909, from 1910 to 1913, and from 1914 to 1915. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party ...

(who later became Labor's second Prime Minister of Australia), accusing Fisher of being a dangerous revolutionary and an anti-Catholic.

State and federal politics

Stumm ran against Fisher for his Gympie seat as in the

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". 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. He also had significant interests in mining investments. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Wide Bay at the 1910 federal election. In 1913, he was elected to the

as the Commonwealth Liberal Party member for the new seat of Lilley and was re-elected in 1914. Stumm encountered substantial prejudice during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a consequence of his German birth, and he spoke out publicly in 1917 about the "humiliating treatment" he had received. 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.

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. 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 Gympie Cemetery is the cemetery for Gympie, Queensland, Australia. The cemetery is located on Corella Road and is managed by the Gympie Cemetery Trust. History It was first unofficially located on the corner of Alfred and King Street, currently ...

.Welcome to the Gympie Cemetery Mapping Portal
– Gympie Cemetery Trust. Retrieved 7 February 2015. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stumm, Jacob 1853 births 1921 deaths Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Lilley Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly People from Gympie People from Toowoomba German emigrants to Australia 20th-century Australian politicians