Jefferson Stow


Jefferson Pickman Stow, was a newspaper editor and magistrate in South Australia.
Stow was born at Buntingford, Hertfordshire, scotland the second son of the Rev. Thomas Quentin Stow and his wife Elizabeth, née Eppes. Jefferson Stow came to South Australia with his parents and brothers in 1837. After engaging in farming pursuits, he went to the Victorian diggings in 1856, and in 1864 to Escape Cliffs in the Northern Territory where of a party of 40 under B. T. Finniss were to establish a settlement named Palmerston at the mouth of the Adelaide River. Stow travelled privately, as representative of a some investors in the associated land scheme. A year later, disillusioned with the prospects of that location, he was one of a party of seven who sailed from Adam Bay to Champion Bay in Western Australia in a small ship's boat they dubbed the Forlorn Hope.
Before leaving, he sent off for publication in The Advertiser a litany of negative observations on the site chosen, and particularly on Finniss as a leader.
An account of this expedition was published by Stow, who was immediately appointed to the staff of The Advertiser, and in 1876 was appointed editor in succession to William Harcus.
Stow was the author of "South Australia: its History, Productions and Natural Resources," compiled at the request of the South Australian government for circulation at the Calcutta International Exhibition, and published that year. It is a well written and concise manual, and has had an extensive circulation in Australia, England and India. Stow was appointed a magistrate in 1884, and in 1886 Commissioner of Insolvency, and Special and Stipendiary Magistrate at Mount Gambier, South Australia and later at Port Pirie. Stow retired in 1904; he died on 4 May 1908 at North Adelaide, survived by his wife, two sons and five daughters.