The Sculptor

A Distinguished New England Sculptor

Charles Niles Pike was a marble and granite worker and distinguished New England sculptor. He was born on May 6, 1838 in North Adams, Massachusetts.

On June 24, 1869, he married Adelia Seymour French, in Leavenworth, Kansas. They had three children, Albert Risley Pike, Edith R. Pike, and Philip Niles Pike. [1]

Mr. Pike died on February 01, 1909 in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

He is buried, along with his wife, at the Eastlawn Cemetery in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Carriage Driver for Commanding Generals

Mr. Pike was in the Civil War assigned a hostler position. He was in the Tenth Regiment Infantry, Company B. He enlisted June 14, 1861; at Harrison’s Landing, July, 1862, detailed to drive private carriage for General McClellan and thereafter enjoyed the unique distinction of being driver for Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant, serving in this capacity till end of enlistment; Mustered Out July 1, 1864; later was in the Christian Commission for a while, was engineer in train yard at Burkesville, Junction, Virginia, and again had the private carriage of the commanding general till the end of the war, not reaching home until the fall of 1865. [2]

The Sculptor

C. Niles Pike is a native of North Adams and a sculptor of more than local reputation. This is his first statue and the excellence of the work will bring him into deserved prominence, but he has long been a maker of medallions and other fine marble pieces, some of which were placed in the Vienna Exposition and won most favorable notices. For his work upon the soldiers' monument he is deserving of the highest praise. He has more than fulfilled his part of the contract and has been careful to comply with every wish of the members of the soldier's aid society. That he has been insufficiently paid is evident and there is a growing feeling on the part of the citizens that his faithful services and satisfactory work are deserving of practical and pecuniary recognition. [3]

Charles Niles Pike and his brother-in-law, John French, went into the monument business in 1885. [4]

References:

1-Family Tree - http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/s/Dean-W-Coston/BOOK-0001/0007-0007.html*

2-"Tenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry," by Alfred S. Roe, p. 375

3-The Adams Transcript, July 4, 1878

4-1885-86 North Adams Directory

*Upon further investigation of this link leading to a "missing page", I found that the genealogist, Dean W. Coston, had died November 2013.