David Pingree

David Pingree was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, to Asa Pingree and Anna Perkins, and raised in Bridgton, Maine. After high school, Pingree moved to Salem, where he lived with his uncle, Thomas Perkins, and began working in a shipping merchant’s counting room. He learned the ropes of the shipping and mercantile businesses, later acting as an agent in his uncle’s shipping firm, Peabody & Perkins.

After his uncle’s death in 1830, Pingree inherited substantial business interests and became one of Salem’s most successful merchants, focusing on trade with East and West India. In 1831, Pingree became president of Naumkeag Bank, and in 1845, president of the Naumkeag Cotton Company, a position he held until he died in 1863. In March 1851, he became the sixth mayor of Salem, a position he would hold for one year. Incidentally, Stephen G. Wheatland, his son-in-law, served as Salem’s thirteenth mayor.

Pingree married Ann Maria Kimball in 1824. They had four children who survived to adulthood. Pingree’s main residence was at 128 Essex Street, known today as the Gardner-Pingree House, now one of Peabody Essex Museum’s historic houses.

He is buried on Greenwood Avenue, Lot #953.