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Joseph Hawes Wesson, youngest child of Daniel B. and Cynthia M. (Hawes) Wesson, was born September 27, 1859, and was educated in the grammar schools and Professor Stebbins’ private school in Springfield, completing his course at the age of twenty years. After leaving school he accompanied his parents to Europe, where he spent six months in travel. Shortly after attaining his twenty-first year he entered the Smith & Wesson factory, where he worked at the bench as an artisan one year, and another year in the draughting room, where he made drawings of tools and fixtures.
Too close application to his work had a bad effect on his health, and he sought to restore lost vigor, first by a short visit to Europe, and then by a residence for a year and a half at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Finding himself again in health, he returned to the factory where he became superintendent, which position he filled until 1905, since which time his work has been of a more general character. He has been a partner in the business since 1887. Wesson has an especial bent for mechanics and to him numerous improvements in machinery are due, some of which he perfected before he was twenty-one years of age. His invention of an automatic machine for drilling pistol barrels enables one man to do the work of five by the former methods in use. With his automatic machine for drilling cylinders, two men do the work formerly done by five. Another labor-saving device of his invention is an automatic machine for drilling holes in small pieces. Besides these he had devised many improvements that are referred to by him as “little things.” In 1900 he spent three months in Europe, having the oversight of the firm’s exhibit at the Universal Exposition at Paris. He is a director of the Union Trust Company of Springfield. In political sentiment ho is a Republican, with a tendency to liberal views. He is a member of the Nayasset and the Springfield Automobile clubs. He is fond of travel in his own country and has a familiar knowledge of most parts of the United States.
He married, June 7, 1882, Florence May Stebbins, born November 27, 1860, daughter of Professor Milan C. and Sophia (Pitts) Stebbins, of Springfield. Children : 1. Eleanor Sanford, born April 21, 1883 ; married, November 4, 1908, Flynt Lincoln, teller of the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust Company. 2. Douglas B., born October 23, 1884, see forward. 3. Victor Hawes, born October 6, 1890; now a student in the technical department of the high school, Springfield
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1859 - 1920 (60 years)
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