William Parker Derby was born on January 5, 1839, in Camillus, New York, to Lideral and Mary Derby. His parents died when he was a young child, and he spent around eight years in an orphanage in Onondaga, New York. By 1850, he was living with farmer Abner Parsons in Northampton, Massachusetts. He remained there until he was eighteen, when he enrolled at Williston Seminary.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on September 10, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 27^th Massachusetts Infantry ten days later. The regiment served in North Carolina. In June 1862, he became a “military postmaster,” with headquarters in New Bern, North Carolina. He mustered out on September 27, 1864.

 

He returned to Northampton after leaving the army, and he taught school for four years. He married Frances B. Lyman on May 4, 1865, and they had at least three children: Mary, born around 1868; Fannie, born around 1869; and Winfred, born around 1876. By 1870, he was working as an accountant, and he owned $1,000 of personal property. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, in the 1870s, and he worked as a fabric manufacturer and a “commercial traveler.” In the 1880s, he began working as an advertising agent.

 

He joined the Grand Army of the Republic around 1882, and he eventually became post commander and then state commander. In 1883, he published a history of the 27^th Massachusetts Infantry. He applied for a federal pension in 1896 and eventually received one. He died from “exhaustion” in Springfield on February 6, 1901.

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