USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 1 > Part 17
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In the spring of 1869 he purchased a controlling interest in the firm of H. C. Ammidown & Company, manufacturers of optical goods, and with his brother Hiram, decided to start a new firm in that business. Having accepted an offer to join the old firm, a new com- pany was incorporated in 1869, under the name of the American Optical Company. Mr. Wells was chosen clerk of the new company and manager of the steel department, and has continued in the ser- vice of the company ever since. He was director for many years,
GEORGE WASHINGTON WELLS
and elected treasurer, November 21, 1879. He was chosen presi- dent, February 16,. 1891, and held both offices till February 8, 1903, when his son, Channing, was chosen treasurer. Beginning, as we have seen, at the very bottom of the ladder, he has thus risen to the active charge of the whole business; and it is admitted by all that the success of the company is largely due to his management. When he went to Southbridge in 1864 there were but eleven persons in the town engaged in producing optical goods, exclusive of the three members of the firm; now there are two thousand seven hundred, the greater portion of them being in the employ of the American Optical Company. Its factory buildings have undergone constant enlargement and improvement, until it is now the largest establish- ment of the kind in the world and equipped with every up-to-date im- provement. For thirty years past its goods have been accepted as standard and models in Europe, America, Australia and the Orient. The company exports to nearly all countries. Its office in London, located in Hatton Garden, surpasses all others in its line, not only in elegance but in the extent, variety and beauty of the goods displayed. Hardly a generation ago practically all the lenses, test cases, etc., used in this country were imported from Europe. Now most of the American demand is supplied by American producers and not an inconsiderable portion of the foreign demand; not because the American goods are cheaper but because they are better. This great success has been due in no small degree, Mr. Wells believes, to the protective duty on these high-cost goods, and in proof that when there is large domestic competition the duty is not added to the price, he cites with pride the fact that since the goods have been made here in large quantities the prices have fallen thirty-three to fifty per cent. Possessing to an unusual degree the qualities of natural mechanical skill, joined to industry, judgment and energy, Mr. Wells's career could not be otherwise than successful. Men who know testify that he stands in the front rank of the "Cap- tains of Industry" of this country.
From his special interest in all mechanical lines, Mr. Wells has naturally been a constant and thorough student in matters pertain- ing to his particular business, and has taken out many patents in connection with the same. He has thus come to be considered for many years a patent expert along the lines of optical goods. His business trips in the interest of the American Optical Company
GEORGE WASHINGTON WELLS
have taken him into nearly every State of the Union, and have thus secured him a large acquaintance among the optical people of this country, and also in Europe. He has been able to combine pleasure with business, and has made three extended trips to Europe, accompanied by Mrs. Wells.
Naturally, and almost of necessity, Mr. Wells has made a thorough study of tariff questions in relation to American industries, espe- cially his own, and has appeared many times in Washington before the tariff committees of both House and Senate, imparting infor- mation necessary to forming the tariff schedules in regard to materials used in the optical business, and has thus formed a very pleasant and valuable acquaintance among the leaders of both branches of Congress.
His election to the presidency of the Home Market Club was not sought by him, and his third election in 1907 was an unprecedented honor. All his predecessors had been among the most prominent business and protectionist leaders in Massachusetts. Another honor which came to him unsought, was the giving of his name to a six- masted schooner, which was built in Camden, Maine, and is one of the finest vessels of that class ever built in the United States.
In politics, Mr. Wells is a straightforward Republican; not an office-seeker, or wire-pulling politician, yet few men can do as much as he by proper methods to secure right action in important town affairs, whenever he judges best to exert his influence. The high esteem in which he is regarded by the business men of Southbridge and vicinity may be, in part, suggested by the following offices held by him mostly for many years: president, American Optical Com- pany, Southbridge National Bank, Central Mills Company; director, Southbridge Water Supply Company, Harrington Cutlery Company, Warren Steam Pump Company, Worcester Trust Company, Worces- ter Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Company, National Shawmut Bank, Boston; trustee and member of Investment Committee of Southbridge Savings Bank; trustee Worcester Academy.
In 1888, at the special request of his old friend, Hezekiah Conant, he accepted the appointment as member of the Board of Trustees of Nichols Academy at Dudley, Massachusetts. He was also ap- pointed by Governor Wolcott, and again by Governor Crane, as one of the trustees of the Worcester Insane Asylum.
Mr. Wells has for many years been an active and highly esteemed
GEORGE WASHINGTON WELLS
member of the local Masonic bodies, also of the Worcester Com- mandery, and has attained the thirty-second degree in the Massa- chusetts Consistory.
September 27, 1869, Mr. George W. Wells and Miss Mary E. McGregory, of Southbridge, were married. In 1894 the twenty- fifth anniversary of this event was celebrated by a large gathering of the principal people, not only of Southbridge, but of the neighbor- ing towns. They have three sons and one daughter. The sons are all active workers, holding prominent offices in the American Optical Company: Channing M., director and vice-president; Albert B., director and treasurer; J. Cheney, director and clerk; the daughter, Mary E., being the wife of Frank F. Phinney, treasurer and manager of the Warren Steam Pump Company. There are at the present time six grandchildren.
Overlooking the river and valley of the Quinebaug and the extensive works that he has been so largely instrumental in building up, Mr. Wells and his wife enjoy a beautiful home, characterized by simple elegance and good taste, near which are the attractive homes of his three sons, whose children are almost as much at home in their grandfather's house as in their own. The devotion of his sons to business and their efficiency in the different departments are among the triumphs which Mr. Wells contemplates with solid satis- faction in the ripeness of his career.
May 1, 1864, Mr. Wells united with the Baptist Church in South- bridge. He was a member of the church choir for considerable time, and has been one of the principal supporters of the church ever since. When the Young Men's Christian Association was started in Southbridge, Mr. Wells was chosen its first president, holding the office for eleven years; and has also served ten years as a member of the Massachusetts State Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association.
The chief factors which must be established in the cultivation of true Americanism, are, according to him, - "Honesty, temper- ance, industry, determination, perseverance, a home and family if possible in early life, a clean and healthy body and mind, developed and sustained by needed recreation in which mother, wife or chil- dren can join; with these things," he says, "everything is possible, and life must be a success."
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
D ANIEL BAIRD WESSON was born in Worcester in May, 1825, and died at his home in Springfield, August 4, 1906. Behind the personality, the strenuous force that makes cir- cumstances minister to the accomplishment of desired results, lay inherited ability as an inventor. Of English origin, the family of Wesson has flourished in America for fully two centuries, its early home being in New Hampshire. In the history of Fitzwilliam (Cheshire County) mention is made of Jonathan and Molly Wesson, and of their children Jonathan, Polly, and Josiah, all born between 1784 and 1786. Rufus Wesson, the father of Daniel B. Wesson, was a grandson of Abel Wesson of New Hampshire, and he himself was a native of that State. Attracted to Massachusetts by the fascinations of the great workshops there, the father of D. B. Wesson settled at Worcester in early manhood, and shortly became famous in the region for the excellence of his plows. These implements were of wood, and yet their construction was so thorough that their work was entirely satisfactory to the agricultural community. The skill of the inventor and maker was especially shown in the carving of the convexed curves, and while furrows were turned with shares of wood the Wesson found high favor. When the demand for these implements fell off, owing to the advent of the cast-iron plow, Mr. Wesson abandoned their manufacture and took up farming. A man of brains as well as skill, he never lost his interest in the mechanic arts. He died at Worcester in 1874, aged eighty-seven years.
Rufus Wesson married Betsey Baird, of Worcester, who came on both sides of old local families. Of the same sturdy stock as her husband, she too reached a green old age, dying at the home of one of her children in Worcester two years subsequent to her husband's demise, being then in her eighty-eighth year. There were five sons and five daughters. The boys all inherited their father's love for mechanics. Edwin, the oldest son, apprenticed himself to the
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DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
trade of gun-making under Silas Allen of Shrewsbury, an expert in this line. When out of his time he set up for himself at North- boro and acquired considerable reputation as the manufacturer of a firearm of his own invention known as the Wesson rifle. He died about 1850. Rufus and Martin, two younger sons, engaged in shoe manufacturing.
Daniel B. Wesson shared with his father and elder brothers the taste for mechanics and invention. Until he was eighteen years of age he lived at home, devoting his time about equally between duties on the farm and schooling, slighting neither, yet nursing a hope that he might soon be free to follow the bent of his inclination. His father seemed to think that the shoe business afforded a fine prospect for him and urged him to master it under his brothers, Rufus and Martin. While Daniel did not relish this field he was constrained to enter it, but he soon found it uncongenial and went back upon the farm. There he essayed some boyish pistol-making, with the old flint-lock of his father as a model. Wooden stocks patiently whittled, and barrels molded from abandoned vessels of pewter, were deftly put together and fearlessly tested. The lad hoped to be sent off to the shop of his brother Edwin, but his father did not readily entertain the notion of a second departure, and in the end Daniel had to pay for his time to gain his freedom. He was eighteen when he made this bargain, and finding that his father valued his time until attaining his majority at one hundred and fifty dollars, he paid him that sum out of his savings and went off at once to join his eldest brother. It was a good school for the ambitious lad, since it opened the opportunity to master the trade of gunmaking in every detail. In three years he had completed his apprenticeship.
He then worked for a time as a journeyman under his brother, first at Northboro, then at Hartford, Connecticut, being a partner and superintendent of the shop at the last-named place. It is interesting to note that one of the improvements which was used at this period was the invention of the late Alvan G. Clark, the world-famous telescope maker, who received a liberal royalty on it. This was a small funnel-shaped appliance which was attached to the muzzle of a rifle when loading and shaped the "patch" or bit of cloth in which the bullet was placed before it was rammed home. Upon the death of his brother Edwin, in 1850, Mr. Wesson
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
formed a partnership with Thomas Warner, a master armorer of acknowledged skill, who had long resided in Worcester. Mr. Warner retired from business about two years later. Mr. Wesson then joined his brother Frank, who had a gun-making establishment in the town of Grafton, and there devoted himself to the manu- facture of single-barrel target pistols. Thus, step by step, he ac- quired a practical mastery of the armorer's craft, and ripened his inventive powers in the school of daily experiment and experience.
About this time a Mr. Leonard began to make a stir with an improvement in firearms. Having capital at command he organized the Leonard pistol manufacturing company with shops at Charles- town, Massachusetts. Mr. Wesson was called to his aid as super- intendent of the factory and found a somewhat erratic set of inventions submitted for treatment at his skilled hands. Mr. Leonard had some idea of a rapid-firing gun, but his plans did not produce an arm that could be discharged with regularity or handled with safety. He had better success with the old "pepper-box," the cluster of barrels fired by a revolving hammer. As the weapon had no center of fire it was, of course, inaccurate and useless for target practice; yet it obtained some vogue and its manufacture was continued at Windsor, Vermont.
The change released Mr. Wesson, who was now called to Worcester by the firm of Allen & Luther, who sought his assistance in turning out gun-barrels. It was while with this firm that he became ac- quainted with his subsequent partner, Horace Smith. An experi- ment about this time came very near costing Mr. Wesson his life. It was not made with one of his own constructions, but with the invention of a Colonel Porter, who had come up from the South to find some gun-maker capable of making practical his so-called magazine firing arm. The practical eye of Mr. Wesson saw at a glance that the weapon was a thing which no skill could render available; but pressed by the colonel he undertook to experiment with it and even to exhibit it before a board of ordnance officers. Notwithstanding every percaution in handling it, one of the cham- bers went off independently, sending a bullet whizzing through Mr. Wesson's hat; while another chamber, pointed directly at his body, narrowly missed fire.
While giving his days to labor, Mr. Wesson devoted a large part of his nights to thought and study. Out of his reflections and
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
experiments came the invention of a practical cartridge that ren- dered percussion caps a superfluity. But men without ample means at command are forced to go slowly. Mr. Wesson was brooding over his invention - convinced of its incontestable merit - when Courtland Palmer of New York came forward with a bullet hollowed out in part to receive a charge of powder which was held in place by a plug of cork, the latter perforated to permit the flash from a primer to ignite the explosive. Although believing his own to be the better invention, Mr. Wesson felt constrained to accept the offer of Mr. Palmer to enlarge his business as a pistol maker, pro- vided the Palmer invention was given the preference. While study- ing the Palmer cartridge Mr. Wesson made an improvement on it for which he received a patent. This improvement was the addition of a steel disk on which the hammer could explode the fulminate, thus doing away with the primer.
It was in working out this plan that Mr. Wesson became asso- ciated with the late Horace Smith, with whom, in 1852, he formed a partnership and established a factory at Norwich, Connecticut. It was here that the two men worked out the principles of the arm now known as the Winchester rifle, an arm which has been much improved, but which in its main points is practically unchanged to-day. They made this rifle for a time at Norwich, and later applied a similar principle to pistols and other small arms. Even- tually they disposed of their patents to the Volcanic Arms Com- pany. In 1855 Mr. Smith retired from the business and became otherwise engaged in Worcester. Mr. Wesson was at once called to the position of superintendent for the Volcanic Arms Company - to which the Winchester Arms Company has since succeeded, and under its auspices the Smith & Wesson cartridge - the first self- primed metallic cartridge that had proved practical - was put into use. This cartridge was used in the Spencer rifles during the Civil War, although the government was slow to adopt either cartridges or rapid-fire guns. For years the inventors received a royalty on it.
Experimenting and testing his ideas incessantly, Mr. Wesson at length succeeded in perfecting a revolver - the peculiarity and merit of which consisted in the fact that the chambers ran entirely through the cylinder. The opportunity for its manufacture came upon the reorganization of the Volcanic Arms Company, who wrote Mr. Wesson as follows:
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
NEW HAVEN, Feb. 8, 1856.
DANIEL B. WESSON, Esq.,
DEAR SIR:
By vote of the Board of Directors of "The Volcanic Repeating Arms Company " I am hereby instructed to inform you of their acceptance of your resignation of the office of Superintendent of said Company, to take effect on Monday next. And also to acknowledge their appreciation of your services as a mechanic, and the conscientious discharge of your duties as a man.
With respect, I am,
Very truly yours, SAML. L. TALCOTT, Sec.
Freed from his engagement, Mr. Wesson joined again with his old partner, Mr. Smith. They hired premises on Market Street in Springfield, in 1857, and with twenty-five workmen began opera- tions. In 1860, success having attended their efforts, they built a large factory on Stockbridge Street, where, owing to the heavy demand for their weapon starting during the Civil War, they came in time to employ six hundred workmen. The government, it is true, supplied only the old-fashioned arm with percussion caps; but the public with less conservatism and more wisdom demanded the improved weapon. In 1870 the attention of the wide-awake ordnance officers of the Russian government was attracted to the Smith & Wesson revolver, and the result was a contract to supply the Russian army. Two hundred thousand were required for this purpose, and four years were consumed in filling the contract. In 1874 Mr. Smith retired, selling out his interest to Mr. Wesson, who, however, did not care to change the style under which the busi- ness is conducted. The contract with the Russian government was but the prelude to a succession of contracts from governments and firms all over the world, and the filling of these not only brought wealth to Mr. Wesson, but prosperity to hundreds of skilful work- men and incidentally to the city of Springfield. Since 1874 the plant has been materially increased, and it is to-day probably the finest and largest in America for pistol manufacturing, and a model in point of neatness, order, and thoroughness, presenting the most pleasing aspect whether viewed from without or within.
Mr. Wesson was a man of unflagging industry, and in this respect his habits remained practically the same as when he was struggling to make his place in the world. His efforts and studies to improve his inventions were never relaxed. Out of these came a number
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
of notable improvements which make the weapon of his invention indisputably first of its kind. One of the most important of these is the automatic extractor which expels the cartridge shells. An- other is the safety device in the handle which makes it necessary to apply force in two directions to fire the weapon, although no additional effort is required, a means of preventing the accidental discharge of revolvers applied in what is now known as the "ham- merless safety revolver." Since their introduction in 1887 at least 300,000 of these arms have been placed upon the market. The device consists in placing the hammer of the arm entirely within the lock frame so that no external force whatever can be applied to it; and, second, by so arranging the trigger that it cannot be pulled except at the instant of deliberate firing and only by this means. A pistol of this kind cannot possibly be discharged by an ordinary child under eight years of age - thus eliminating one painful source of calamity, and in the hands or on the person of an individual of even a lower grade of intelligence the weapon is scarcely any more dangerous to the one carrying it than if it were a block of wood. The invention known as the "rebounding lock" is an additional source of safety and protection which lends extra value to this perfect construction. Fully one third of the yearly output is of the 38-caliber. The other principal models are the 32, 38, and 44, or army size. Single- and double-action weapons are made; also target pistols and a central fire repeating rifle. All parts are made to gage and are interchangeable. Reloading and dismounting tools are also manufactured. The self-lubricating cartridge-long desired and upon which Mr. Wesson expended great thought - was per- fected by him and placed on the market. Through its use the highest degree of accuracy is secured with practically no fouling of the barrel.
Two of his sons were associated with Mr. Wesson in business; Walter H. Wesson was admitted as partner in 1883 and Joseph H. Wesson in 1887. Both have won their place in the community. The younger son has an especial bent for mechanics, and to him some improvements in machinery are due. One in particular, bearing on the drilling of gun-barrels, makes it possible for one man to do what it formerly required three to accomplish. The loyalty and devotion of the sons was a reenforcement which any father would value. Mr. Wesson was married in 1847 to Miss
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
Cynthia M. Hawes, daughter of Luther Hawes, of Northboro. They had four children: Sarah Janette Wesson, who was married to Dr. Bull of Montreal; Walter H. Wesson; Frank Wesson, whose untimely death was mourned by all who knew him, and Joseph H. Wesson.
Mr. and Mrs. Wesson had always been much to each other, and the long years of their life together had created an unusual sense of mutual dependence. The chief relaxation from business which Mr. Wesson allowed himself was in driving with his wife. They were intimately acquainted with all the drives about Springfield, and in Northboro, where they had their beautiful summer place, and both were fond of nature. Two large and perfectly equipped hos- pitals will constitute enduring memorials of husband and wife. Together they joined, early in 1900, in establishing the Wesson Memo- rial Hospital in their house on High Street, which they left for the splendid mansion on Maple Street. The hospital building was erected by the side of the former High Street home, and on the grounds there is the Maternity Hospital, which Mr. Wesson pro- jected. Both of these hospitals, one provided to serve the homeo- pathic school of medicine, and the other to meet the general need of the community, are equipped at all points equal to the best insti- tutions of their kind anywhere. The homeopathic hospital was completed at a cost of $350,000, and the former Wesson house, valued at $50,000 is used as a home for nurses. The Maternity Hospital on Myrtle and High Streets cost $400,000.
Mastership in the invention, development, and perfection of modern small arms, during an active business career of over half a century, made Daniel B. Wesson notable. He belonged to the school of men who preferred to let their work speak for itself, and are ever "diligent in business." The Smith & Wesson revolver is known wherever firearms are used, and the reticent New Englander who devised it and studied out the improvements which one by one have gone to making it the most complete modern arm of its kind was content with that. Mr. Wesson had his share in developing other local enterprises, while his investment interests were extensive. He was president of the Cheney Bigelow Wire Works and was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Springfield, and for many years was one of its directors. In political views he was strongly Republican. A man of pronounced views on temperance, he has embodied his sentiments in two massive drinking fountains.
DANIEL BAIRD WESSON
He enforced temperance in so far as he could among his employees. His independence of character made him outspoken and free from sham and pretence in social life, business, or religion.
Mr. Wesson was able to give play to his love for architectural construction. He built in Northboro a handsome summer residence upon an attractive estate, the old homestead where Mrs. Wesson was born and lived until her marriage. It is a landmark in central Massachusetts, and an object of admiration and pride to the people of that region. His Maple Street house in Springfield is one of the finest in New England.
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