Born in Hartford county, Maryland, June 2, 1834. He was reared in Baltimore, and after finishing the public schools he attended college in that city and in Gettysburg, PA. After he had finished his education, he read medicine and law, and practiced law in Pennsylvania, and Iowa until the latter part of the 60's. In Fayette county, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1855, Mr. Wetherall married Miss Mary Hall, and they came to Knoxville in the following spring, purchasing a farm in Washington township. That winter they removed to Dallas, where Mr. Wetherall taught the school, then in the spring they returned to the farm which remained their home until, 1880, when they moved to Knoxville. In 1862 he became prominent in Marion county politics, and was elected to the war legislature as a Union democrat serving in the Ninth General Assembly. In the spring of 1881, Mr. Wetherall became editor of The Express. The paper was then owned by the late Drewry Overton. He was also editor of the Marion County Democrat. Mr. Wetherall was a Baptist in his church relations but became dissatisfied with some of the tenets of that church and joined the Christian denomination in which church he was ordained as a minister in 1871. All his life he took great interest in politics and religion.