Jacob Stumm

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]

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]