Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ben and Sarah (Andrews) Pike, and spent his childhood in Byfield and Newburyport, Massachusetts. His colonial ancestors settled the area in 1635, and included John Pike (1613-1688/1689), the founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey. He attended school in Newburyport and Framingham until he was 15. In August 1825, he passed entrance exams at Harvard University, though when the college requested payment of tuition fees for the first two years, he chose not to attend. He began a program of self-education, later becoming a schoolteacher in Gloucester, North Bedford, Fairhaven and Newburyport. In 1831, he left Massachusetts to travel west, and later moving to St. Louis, Missouri. There he joined an expedition to Taos, New Mexico, devoted to hunting and trading. Settling in Arkansas in 1833, Pike taught in a school and wrote a series of articles for the Little Rock Arkansas Advocate under the pen name of "Casca." The articles were popular enough that he was asked to join the newspaper's staff. Under Pike's administration the Advocate promoted the viewpoint of the Whig Party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas in December 1832. After marrying Mary Ann Hamilton in 1834, he purchased the newspaper. Pike first joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1840. He next joined a Masonic Lodge, where he became extremely active. In 1859 he was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction. He remained Sovereign Grand Commander for the remainder of his life (a total of thirty-two years), devoting a large amount of his time to developing the rituals of the order. Notably, he published a book called Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1871, of which there were several subsequent editions. This helped the order grow during the nineteenth century. Pike is still considered an eminent and influential Freemason, primarily in the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction. Pike died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 81, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. Burial was against his wishes; he had left instructions for his body to be cremated. In 1944, his remains were moved to the House of the Temple, headquarters of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. A memorial to Pike is located in the Judiciary Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He is the only Confederate military officer with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C.