A painter by trade, Nathaniel A. Burpee and his brother formed a partnership and eventually a corporation called N.A. & S.H Burpee Furniture which thrived in mid-nineteenth century Rockland.
It should be noted that the business combined furniture, undertaking and house painting although it appears that most of the trade was in furniture.
Burpee was born in Sterling, Massachusetts on March 13, 1816, and little is known of his early life other than the fact that he learned house painting from his father, was an ardent Whig in politics and, like so many others, became a Republican in the mid-1850’s.
After serving two terms in the Maine House in 1854 and 1855, he was elected to the State Senate for four terms and was its President in 1867.
He died in 1887.