In 1839, Best's father, John, moved the family to Missouri, where he built a saw mill to cut lumber for the local pioneers.

Daniel Best spent the first nine years of his life here, before the family moved again in 1847 to Lee County, Iowa, where they took up farming and raised stock.

He then moved to Sutter County, California to work on the ranch owned by his brother Henry Best, where he began inventing machines.

He sold his first horse-powered combined harvester in 1885, using the money from sales of this machine to invest in work on an improved design for a traction engine.

He first purchased the rights to build a steam traction engine from Remington of Woodburn, Oregon in 1888, before making improvements to the design.