 Grubb was born in Burlington, New Jersey, to a fourth-generation member of the Grubb Family Iron Dynasty, Edward Burd Grubb Sr. and his wife Euphemia Parker.The Grubb family was descended from John Grubb who came from Cornwall, England and settled in Delaware in the early 1680s.He was educated at Burlington College, later named St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy and graduated in 1860, just five months before Abraham Lincoln was elected as President.