Corporal William Jubb
Biography

Born in 1841 on a farm north of Leeds, England, William Jubb left for America with his mother and five siblings in 1850. His father, having arrived in America a year earlier, met them at the docks in Boston and they settled in West Chelmsford, MA where he had been working as a finisher at Eagle Mills. William attended school until the age of eleven when he was put into the mill to work. As a child he made 25-40 cents per day and worked a 12-hour day. He also worked on local farms and in a shop that made cavalry swords.

Shortly after the Civil War broke out, his older 24-year old brother, John, enlisted but died of pneumonia on July 30, 1862 in Virginia. Bereaved 20-year old William wanted to take John’s place, but was refused due to his small size.  Not to be deterred, he walked nine miles to Westford, MA where he was enlisted in the 16th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He and his comrades received extensive training under the command of George McClellan and were well prepared for later battles.

William fought with both the 16th and 33rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiments and under General Oliver O. Howard, who led the XI Corps. He took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Beverly Ford, VA; Gettysburg, PA; Lookout Valley and Missionary Ridge, TN; and Dallas, GA.

At the battle of Gettysburg, the 33rd Massachusetts Regiment helped defend Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill from Confederate attack: thus preventing the rebels from pouring through the Union front in order to advance towards the undefended Washington Capitol.

During the battle of Dallas, GA, William went missing from the Union ranks. He and eleven other soldiers from his regiment were captured by the rebels and imprisoned at Andersonville Prison, GA. Once, when on a work detail, he daringly escaped from the guards, only to be eventually recaptured and returned to the prison until the end of the war.

The conditions at Andersonville were deplorable. Of the twelve of his regiment at Andersonville, he and only three others lived to return to Massachusetts. He was released in a prisoner exchange, spent several weeks in the hospital and was then sent home on a 30-day furlough. He weighed only 75 pounds, having lost 50 pounds. He once said that he survived because he was such a small man and didn’t need much to keep himself alive.

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After the War
In November 1865 he married Mary Augusta Holden from Shirley. They lived in Westford, MA, had six children and he worked as a carpenter in Fitchburg. He eventually acquired a home at 115 Cedar Street in Fitchburg. When Augusta’s father, Luke Holden, passed away in 1893 she inherited the 93-acre Holden farm on Holden Road in Shirley and they moved here. William farmed the land and enjoyed the quiet peacefulness of country life in Shirley.

Following the war Corporal Jubb was mustered into Post 19 of The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) in Fitchburg. He was an active member and attended many of G.A.R. Civil War conventions over the years. He was the recording secretary for the Survivors of Southern Prisons and was the Commander of the 33rd Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment Association in 1925. He was a prolific writer and note-keeper. He attended Shirley Memorial Day parades for many years and was a greatly admired citizen of the town. He visited Shirley schools where he delighted the school children with poetry recitations and stories of his Civil War experiences. These are the words that he wrote on the blackboard as he would leave a school: “Labor for learning before you are old, for knowledge is better than silver or gold. Silver and gold will vanish away, but knowledge is power that can never decay.”

Augusta passed away in 1907, and William eventually retired to St. Petersburg, FL in the early 1920’s, where he was active in the GAR chapter there. He made a practice of returning to Massachusetts every year for the annual Grand Army encampment.
 

When William moved to Florida his son, Arthur Jubb, took over the farm on Holden Road. His daughter, Lavonne Edgarton, also remained in Shirley and owned a home on Harvard Road. In 1931 William returned to Shirley to celebrate his 90th birthday at Lavonne’s home and was joined by his three surviving younger brothers. Back in August of 1863 William had written a touching letter from the battlefield to these brothers in which he recalled when they “…used to go Chesnuting on Sunday’s and scamper round the woods all day in stead of goin to meeting. I hope my four little Brothers will not do so now I am away. It is my wish that you should go to sunday school and grow up good men. If I am evered spared to come home again I intend to go too and be a better boy than I was…”
This visit in Shirley was the first time the four of them had been together in 50 years.

William died in Florida on April 20th, 1934 at the age of 92. His body was returned to Shirley by railcar. On April 25th, Corporal William Jubb’s funeral at the United Church was ‘one of the largest funerals in the history of the town.’  The local post of the American Legion held a military burial at the Shirley Center cemetery, where his remains are interred.