MHLDA Annual Meeting 2023

Some lumberyards have been around so long they can brag about when they used to employ horses for deliveries—but how many can say they once owned a company schooner?  

Back in the days of founder Nathaniel Dain in the late 1800s, Dain’s Lumber used “Annie,” the schooner, to deliver sand, gravel, and wood up the Hudson to West Point Military Academy. Five generations later, Nathaniel’s great-great-grandson Jeff Dain is keeping the family tradition alive: “Same family. Same Location. Since 1848.” 

“Wood was in my blood,” Jeff says of the family legacy. His son Bryant once noted that in the Dain household, “if you didn’t have any sawdust in your pockets going into the wash, you did when it came out.”  

Jeff started out as a stock boy in the 1970s, stocking nails and “unloading by hand train box carloads of white pine while a union guy sat on the lift.” Back then, the company was doing $1 million in annual sales; Jeff brought that to $9 million by 2019, “and my son and daughter-in-law have since more than doubled that,” he adds.  

More than just growing up on the lumber yard, Jeff literally lived there for about 12 years in the 1980s and ’90s. It’s where he and his wife, Christine, had their first son, James. (They’ve since built a house in Garrison, where they raised their children, and acquired a winter home in Venice, Florida.) “I guess the short of it, looking back at the last 50 years, it wasn’t a job or a business—it was a way of life,” Jeff notes.  

That way of life left room for more than just work. Jeff points out with pride that he was still able to attend school musicals, ball games, and even coach his kids’ sports, and that employees, customers, and vendors were frequently invited to social outings and family functions. He cherishes having had business relationships that turned into friendships. 

All the while, the family legacy helped Jeff keep things in perspective, especially during the bad times, which included two fires in the course of his career. (There have been five total.) “Knowing that this company has endured for so many years through so many conflicts—the Civil War, the stock market crash, etc.—the problems that I have seen before the pandemic seem insignificant,” he shrugs.  

Now semi-retired, Jeff is passing on the reins of Dain’s Lumber to James, and what a legacy he inherits. “We started on the banks of the Hudson River with sheds holding our building supplies while the lumber lay in piles on the dirt ground,” he recalls. Dain’s now occupies a 25,000-square-foot building on two-plus acres of land with a 10,000-square-foot shop. And they’re still growing. They recently purchased five acres in Coldspring for a new loading/unloading facility for trailers and are working on plans for another potential retail yard. 

With time on his hands now, Jeff looks forward to indulging his hobbies like gardening, swimming, pickle ball, and “someday getting back onto the golf course,” and he and his wife plan to do some traveling in their RV with their dog. 

He feels confident that he’s leaving the family legacy in good hands. “In my eyes, James has done a whole lot right, and he has learned from my mistakes.” He advises his son to “prioritize your life. Put things in order; some will change, but most of the basics will stay the same. In a family business, the business can get in the way of other things at times.”