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From: <>
Subject: Re: Who's line is this
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 23:36:49 EDT

Hi Roy!

Really interesting to see your message about Smith & Wesson.

Mike Baird (on the BAIRD list) and I both descend from the marriage of Bestsey
Wesson of Grafton, MA, and James Baird of Worcester, MA. Betsey Wesson and
Daniel Baird Wesson of Smith & Wesson fame both descended from John Wesson
(Rev. War) and Ruth Death who came to Grafton Gore in Worcester County, MA,
from Framingham. Children of John and Ruth (Death) Wesson: Samuel (Rev.
War), Levi (Rev. War), Joel, John Jr., Abel (Rev. War); and Silas (killed at
the attack on Quebec December 31, 1775).

Joel Wesson purchased land at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester County, from
Lewis Baird, and it is there that his son, Daniel Baird Wesson, was born.

Ellery Bicknell Crane, in his 1907 two-volume "Historic Homes and Institutions
and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts," had
this to say about Daniel Baird Wesson (son of Rufus Wesson and Betsey Baird):

Daniel Baird Wesson, who made for himself world-wide fame as an inventor of
the revolver which bears his name, was a son of Rufus Wesson. He was born at
Worcester, Massachusetts, May 18, 1825. At the age of seventeen, while yet at
school, he began to devote his evenings to making firearms in Northborough,
Massachusetts, under the direction of his brother Edwin, who died in 1850, and
whose interests he took in charge, and it was this establishment which turned
out the Wesson rifle, the leading favorite with hunters at that time.
Subsequently, at Norwich, Connecticut, he formed a partnership with Horace
Smith, under the name of Smith & Wesson, and they established a factory and
made the "volcanic" rifle, a repeater. Mr. Wesson also invented a metallic
cartridge. About 1855 the firm sold their patent rights to the Volcanic
Repeating Arms Company, now the Winchester Rifle Company. Mr. Wesson remained
for a time as superintendent, but in 1857 joined Horace Smith again, under the
firm name of Smith & Wesson, and began to manufacture revolvers in
Springfield, Massachusetts. They began in a small shop with about seventy-
five men, making a few thousand arms a year, but the business grew very
rapidly, especially after the breaking out of the civil war, and became
enormous. The Smith & Wesson works are in some respects the largest and most
complete of the kind in the world. The buildings and equipment are especially
substantial and complete, and an average force of five hundred men have been
employed for many years. The Smith & Wesson revolvers are famous all over the
world, and are the favorite weapon in some of the foreign armies, as they are
in that of the United States. They received the highest award, against the
competition of the whole world, at the Exposition in Paris, 1867; Moscow,
1872; Vienna, 1873; Philadelphia, 1876; Australia, 1880; and at many of the
numerous exhibitions more recently. Mr. Smith retired from the firm in 1874.
Mr. Wesson admitted to partnership, January 1, 1882, his son, Walter H., and
later his son Joseph, and these two are now the active managers of this
business.

Mr. Crane provided further details about the professional, social, and
philanthropic activities of Daniel Baird Wesson, and noted that he was married
to Cynthia M. Hawes. Their children: Sarah Jeanette; Walter Herbert; Frank
Luther; and Joseph Hawes.

An interesting side note is the fact that Daniel Baird Wesson had a sister,
Cornelia, who married Gilbert H. Harrington of the Harrington & Richardson
Arms Company.

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