Delia L. Stearns was born in 1843 in Copley, Ohio. Her father John D. Stearns had been an abolitionist and temperance worker. She married Samuel S. Weatherby in 1868. Samuel Weatherby was born in Knox County, Ohio on February 1, 1841.

The Weatherbys moved to Baldwin City, Kansas in 1870, where Samuel served as professor of languages at Baker University for nine years. He also held the role of University President in 1873-1874. Delia belonged to the Coffey County Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) chapter and served as superintendent of the press department. She was also a state reporter for the Union Signal.

In the 1880s Samuel Weatherby left his position at Baker and returned to the Methodist Episcopal ministry. The Weatherbys lived an itinerant life until Weatherby's health began failing, and then they moved to LeRoy, Kansas. The Weatherbys had three children: Olive (Weatherby) Quakenbush, Edmond Stearns Weatherby, and Leroy S. Weatherby. Samuel died July 22, 1924, and Delia died in November 1916.

Edmond Stearns Weatherby, who frequently went by E.S. Weatherby, attended university in Kansas in the late 1890s. He married Katherine Rinehardt on November 28, 1901, and the couple spent an academic year teaching at Fort Yates Indian School in 1904-1905. They moved back to Lawrence, Kansas after the year-long contract expired.

Edmond served progressively senior administrative roles at the Lawrence Business College for several decades, including superintendent, vice president, and president. Edmond and Katherine had four children: Samuel, Olive, Katharine, and Herbert.