[1] Daniel's father was a farmer and manufacturer of wooden plows and Daniel worked on his father's farm and attended public school until the age of eighteen, when he apprenticed himself to his brother Edwin Wesson (a leading manufacturer of target rifles and pistols in the 1840s) in Northborough, Massachusetts.

[5] In 1854, Daniel B. Wesson partnered with Horace Smith and Courtlandt Palmer to develop a lever-action pistol and the first repeating rifle—the Volcanic.

[9] In 1856, Smith & Wesson began to produce a small revolver designed to fire the rimfire cartridge they had patented in August 1854.

At the age of 65, Smith retired from the company and sold his share of the business to Wesson, making him the sole owner of the firm.

In 1899, Smith & Wesson introduced what is arguably the most famous revolver in the world, the .38 Military & Police (renamed the Model 10 in 1957).

Wesson died at his home in Springfield, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1906—following a four-year illness, he succumbed to "...heart failure, superinduced by neuritis.

Wesson, a strong advocate of homeopathy, had funded a new building for the Hampden Homeopathic Hospital in Springfield through a donation of $100,000 in 1904.

[18] One that is still standing is now known as the Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was built for his daughter Sarah and was designed by Calvert Vaux.

[19] The house was three and a half stories in height and constructed of pink granite with a red slate roof and bronze cresting and finials.

[20] Wesson had apprenticed in Northborough, Massachusetts, at his brother Edwin's gunsmith shop, and met his future wife there.

[25] Later, Wesson built a summer home in Northborough on land partially belonging to his wife's family, which was completed in 1886 a cost of approximately $300,000.

[24] Water for the house and grounds was sourced from a nearby pond, with a pumping station and cistern, fed by approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of pipe.