CLEVELAND, Ohio – Chubbtown.

It sounds like what a boisterous version of Browns running back Nick Chubb would call the end zone, or maybe use to trash talk defenders.

“You’re in Chubbtown baby! All day!”

But that’s not Nick Chubb. And that’s not Chubbtown.

A couple months after his final college game, as he prepared for the 2018 NFL Draft, Chubb wrote a letter thanking Georgia fans for their support. This was the third sentence:

“My family created a legacy in Chubbtown, Georgia, and I wanted to make them proud.”

Chubbtown is an actual town in Georgia, not far from the Alabama border and about an hour and a half from Atlanta. Chubb grew up in Cave Spring (10 minutes west) and went to high school in Cedartown (10 minutes south). But his connection to Chubbtown is more than just proximity.

It’s his family history.

John Henry Chubb, along with his wife, daughter and eight sons were originally in North Carolina. Kenneth Jones, another descendent of the Chubbtown founders, researched the family’s history and found that the 1830 census listed Chubbs living as free blacks in North Carolina. The Chubbs and other free blacks journeyed to Georgia and settled near a creek in the northwest corner of the state sometime between 1850 and 1864.

According to records of Floyd County, where Chubbtown is located, Henry Chub (spelled with one b), one of the original eight sons, purchased 120 acres for $900 in 1864, before the end of the Civil War.

The settlement grew to include a church, school, post office, meeting hall and a lodge. It also had businesses such as a saw mill, cotton gin, wagon company, blacksmith, grist mill, syrup mill and a company that made caskets. The settlers farmed the land and were self-sufficient.

That’s what we know. What we don’t know is how a community of free blacks was able to prosper in the south during the Civil War. According to New Georgia Encyclopedia, “free blacks made up a mere 0.3 percent of the state’s black population in 1860, and they were concentrated largely in urban areas, especially Savannah and Augusta.”

One story is that the Chubbs became friendly with a sheriff in nearby Rome, Georgia. Chubbtown survived the Civil War, according to town lore, because Union General William T. Sherman left the town untouched during his march through Georgia in 1864.

“I’ve always wondered about that,” said Nick’s father, Henry. “How did that happen? And how did they migrate from almost Virginia? But they did it. And it wasn’t just a town for blacks. Whites were welcome, too. They just got along.”

The eight original brothers -- John, George, Issac, Henry, Jacob, William, Thomas and Nickolus –- are buried in the cemetery behind Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church, which is about all that remains of the original town due to a flood in 1916. The town is unincorporated, but has approximately 200 residents, according to Henry.

Nick Chubb's ancestors founded a small town in Georgia called Chubbtown. The town remains, although the Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church is about all that survived a flood in 1916. (Photo courtesy wheninromega.com)

Nick’s family spent plenty of time there when he was growing up. They attended Chubb Chapel (where Nick was an altar boy), and fished and swam in the nearby creek.

In 2015, Nick told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has plans for Chubbtown when he’s done with football.

“That’s actually one of my retirement plans, to go down there and build some of those things back up,” Chubb said. “When I’m older, of course. But I’d get my family members to help me. We could go in there, get things rebuilt and restructured and get things back to the way they used to be.”

Perhaps Nick could get help from Bradley Chubb of the Broncos, one of his cousins and also a descendent of Chubbtown.

This all might seem like a lot of hard work, but it’s also the kind of inspiration Henry wants his children to take from Chubbtown’s history.

“I want them to understand that regardless of who you are, you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and focus,” Henry said. “To move down south and start businesses like (the original Chubbs) did … you can do anything you want.”

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