Whiting Miner Wetherell was born on September 2, 1836, in Canaan, Connecticut, to Howell and Abigail Wetherell. His father was a blacksmith who owned $2,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Canaan, Connecticut, and he moved to Mechanicsville, Iowa, in the 1850s. He married Anna Snyder on November 2, 1859, and they had at least seven children: Catherine, born around 1861; Frank, born around 1865; Homer, born around 1867; Olive, born around 1870; Abigail, born around 1872; Howard, born around 1878; and Anna, born around 1879.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 4, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 35^th Iowa Infantry on September 5, 1862. The regiment took part in the siege of Vicksburg, the Red River campaign, and the Battle of Nashville. He was promoted to sergeant on December 27, 1862, and then to 1^st lieutenant on July 24, 1863. He mustered out on August 10, 1865.

 

He settled in Jackson, Iowa, after the war and earned a living as a peddler. By 1870, he owned $900 of real estate and $350 of personal property. They moved to Washington, Iowa, in the late 1800s. He applied for a federal pension in May 1889 and eventually secured one. He died on March 11, 1917, in Janesville, Iowa.

SOURCES