Chasteen C. Stumm was born on April 11, 1848, in Airdrie, Kentucky, a former iron mining town in Muhlenberg County.

[1] For three sessions he attended a segregated school for White students in Greenville, Kentucky, which caused disruption in the community.

[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.

[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] 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.

[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 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.