Daniel Baird Wesson was born in Worcester, Massachussets, the fourth of ten children of Rufus and Betsey (Baird) Wesson. His father, a descendant of John Wesson who emigrated from England and settled in Salem in 1644, was engaged in farming and in the manufacture of plows. Wesson grew up at home, worked on the farm.
He attended school until he was eighteen years old.
He apprenticed himself at that time to his eldest brother, a manufacturer of firearms in Northboro, Massachussets Upon completing his apprenticeship in 1846 he worked as a journeyman gunsmith for his brother and for a manufacturer in Hartford, Connecticut, but on the death of his brother in 1850 he took over the latter's business in partnership with Thomas Warner, an armorer of Worcester. Two years later, however, Warner retired. For a few months Wesson worked to develop the Leonard pistol in Charlestown, Massachussets, and then entered the employ of Allen, Brown & Luther, gunsmiths in Worcester, Massachussets, where he met his subsequent partner, Horace Smith. Although his regular work had to do with rifle barrels, in his spare time Wesson tried to perfect a practical cartridge, working particularly on the improvement of a rim-fire metallic cartridge brought to his attention by Cortland Palmer of New York. He was so successful in this that in 1853 he induced Smith to go into partnership with him to manufacture it in Norwich, Connecticut In February 1854 the two patented a pistol which was not only a cartridge weapon but had an entirely new and distinct repeating action. Although this repeating action was not entirely successful in pistols, adapted to rifles it became the basic invention incorporated in the world-famous Winchester repeating rifle. When in 1855 the partners sold their rifle patent rights to the Volcanic Arms Company, Smith retired, and Wesson accepted the position of superintendent of the company. After further experiment on improving the metallic cartridge and on making his repeating action applicable to the revolver, Wesson purchased an open-cylinder revolver invented by Rollin White and induced Smith to reënter a partnership with him in 1857 to manufacture revolvers. The Smith and Wesson revolver was a phenomenal success from the start, for it was the only one made with an open cylinder and using a metallic cartridge. Though it was manufactured at first chiefly for the American market, large contracts were later obtained from most of the countries of Europe, among them one from the Russian government for 200, 000 revolvers. Wesson, who looked after the mechanical end of the business, and was always interested in improving the quality of his revolvers and cartridges, in 1869 purchased the shell-extracting device invented by W. C. Dodge (patented January 17, 1865), and about 1887 introduced the "hammerless safety revolver", which prevented accidental firing. In 1873 Smith again retired. After carrying on the business for ten years alone, Wesson took his two sons into partnership with him. Outside of his firm's activities, Wesson was president of the Cheney Bigelow Wire Works, and was a founder and active director of the First National Bank of Springfield. At the time of his death, which followed close upon that of his wife, he was survived by two sons and a daughter.
He was of striking and attractive personality, and his philanthropies in Springfield were many.
On May 26, 1847, he married Cynthia M. Hawes of Northboro, Massachussets.
