E. (Edwin) Bertram Pike was born in Salem, MA on July 24, 1866. He graduated from St Johnsbury Academy with the Class of 1884. He took a commercial course at the New Hampton Commercial College and then entered the family business of the A. F. Pike Manufacturing Company at what was then known as Pike Station near Haverhill, NH.
Pike was a traveling salesman for the family business for several years and after it was incorporated as the Pike Manufacturing Company in 1889 he became superintendent of its factories and quarries.
Pike was a Republican and President of the Haverhill Republican Club for several years. He was a Representative from Haverhill, NH in the NH Legislature serving on the Appropriations and Forestry Committee.
Pike had a strong interest in forestry and was part of the forest conservation movement of that era. Early in 1903, Pike introduced a bill in the NH Legislature appropriating $5,000 for surveying forestry conditions in the White Mountains. The NH Forestry Commission would direct the work, but the federal Bureau of Forestry would do the actual survey work. This report became known as the Chittenden Report, after the name of the author Alfred K. Chittenden, and provided the facts about logging and forest fires that forestry advocates needed. The Chittenden Report was used to demonstrate why a national forest was needed to protect the White Mountain region.