David Nevins, Jr.

David Nevins Jr. (July 30, 1839 in Boston, Massachusetts – August 24, 1898 in Germany) was a wealthy Yankee merchant in the city of Methuen, Massachusetts during the industrial boom of the late 19th century.

Life Nevins was the son of David Nevins Sr. who was born in Salem, New Hampshire on December 12, 1809 to John Nevins and Achsah Nevins née Swan Nevins. David Jr.'s mother was Eliza Nevins née Eliza Coffin, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from the island of Nantucket named Jared Coffin. and "one of the worst industrial calamities in American history".

David Jr. was educated in Boston and in Paris. Upon completing his education, he joined his father's business and took on ever-increasing responsibilities as his father aged. For a time he managed the City Exchange Banking Company, a financial institution with offices in Boston that was eventually merged with the Nevins' other businesses. The "Methuen Duck Cloth" the Nevins manufactured was world-renowned as a material for sail cloth and tents for the tropics.

After David Sr.'s death in 1881, the family's wealth was such that his widow Eliza, his eldest son David Nevins, and his younger son Henry Coffin Nevins were able to erect the Nevins Memorial Library in his honor. David Sr. and Eliza are buried on the library grounds beneath a memorial "Angel of Life" sculptured by George Moretti.

Legacy David and his wife Harriet F. Nevins (née Harriet F. Blackburn) had no children, in Methuen as well as Blackburn Hall and a stone fountain in Walpole, Massachusetts. As a memorial dedicated to her husband in the nave of the local Congregationalist Church she dedicated "The Resurrection", a stained glass window designed by John LaFarge and "said to be his masterpiece."

A short distance from above-mentioned Nevins Memorial Library is the Henry C. Nevins Home for Aged and Incurables, an old age home established in 1906 and named for his brother. According to one author, "The public spirit and generosity of the Nevins family seems to have no bounds in the town in which they made their home".