Pickering Dodge (1778-1833) was born on April 6, 1778 to Israel Dodge (1740-1822) and Elizabeth Pickering (1747-1822) in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a wealthy merchant in Salem and owned a number of vessels including the ships Bengal , Gentoo, Izette, Mandarin, Midas, and Rome, the brigs, Ganges, Governor Endicott, and Herald, and the schooner Mary Jane. On November 5, 1801, he married Rebecca Jenks (1781-1851) and together they had eight children: Mary (1802-1802); Pickering (1804-1863); Mary Jenks (1806-1807); Mary Jenks (1807-1833); Lucy Pickering (1810-1840); Catherine Elizabeth (b.1816); Rebecca Ann (1819-1890); and Eliza Devereux (1824-1826). The family lived in Salem on Chestnut Street until Pickering's death on August 16, 1833 at age 55.

Pickering Dodge (1804-1863) was born in Salem, Massachusetts on April 24, 1804. He graduated from Harvard College in 1823. On March 28, 1826 he married Anna Storer Coleman (1808-1849) and together they had five children: Charles Henry (1827-1846); Ellen Barry (1829-1854); Edward Pickering (1831-1854); George Storer (1838-1840); and Georgiana Storer (1841-1865). Pickering published books about art and sculpture, along with a book of letters to his children detailing his travels in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also published A Tribute to the Memory of the Infant Dead in 1842, as a memorial to his son, George. After Anna's death in 1849, Pickering married Eliza Webb Gilman (b. 1825) on June 9, 1853 in Charleston, South Carolina. Together the couple had two children, Pickering (b. 1856) and Rebecca Gilman (b. 1861). The family lived in Worcester, Massachusetts until Pickering's death on December 28, 1863, at age 59.