When Richmond Dean invested in a lumberyard in Chicago 110 years ago, he started a five-generation trend in the family business, according to brothers Tom and Matt Dean.

The business has gone through different incarnations over time, including Dean Hardwoods, a company in Wilmington until the doors closed in 2012. Now the brothers run Woodies Woodshop at 6548 A Market St., supplying exotic woods, ipe (a Brazilian hardwood) decking, siding and S4S hardwoods.

Their father, Chuck Dean, moved his business to Wilmington in 1984, said Matt Dean, and the 30 jobs Dean Hardwoods created were a welcome boon to the economy at the time. Chuck Dean traveled to places such as Asia and South America seeking exotic woods and developing relationships with sellers.

The original Chicago company supplied exotic veneers for passenger railroad cars; during World War II, it supplied veneer for wood-hulled PT boats. The company passed in various forms from family member to family member.

With the economic downturn, Dean Hardwoods was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2008 and went out of business in 2012. After the economic downturn, the Dean team pulled together once again and opened Woodies Woodshop in 2014. The company has four employees.

“Wood is alive,” said Tom Dean. “When you get lumber, you have to remove the water without hurting the wood. You have to get the wood to a particular moisture content to use it properly. So it goes in the kiln to get it to usable condition.

“When I learned that phase of the business, I learned sales; then moved into purchasing,” he continued. “I traveled all over South America and into Southeast Asia. We bought directly from there until 2011 or 2012. I got to see lots of things people never get to see, from living conditions to magnificent jungle.”

Tom Dean was on his own for 10 years. “I was in the flooring and decking business, importing woods from South America. Everyone got hit with the downturn. When Dean Hardwoods closed, Matt and I were able to buy the assets back.”

When the company closed he came back to reincarnate it alongside his brother into what is now Woodies Woodshop.

“I was with the company for about 10 years until it closed,” said Matt Dean. “The bank pulled our credit line, and it destroyed the company. ... We had just built a brand new facility in Leland. Had it not been for that, I think we would have made it. The way banks used to deal with customers, we would have worked it out.”

Matt Dean almost took a different path entirely.

“I went away to boarding school and college [University of Dallas] and majored in history,” said Matt Dean. “I thought I would be a history teacher, or priest or both.”

But he returned to help their dad when Tom Dean went out on his own and stayed through the closing of the company. Now a newlywed, Matt Dean is trying to strike a work-life balance. “He [Tom] works seven days a week; I work five and a half.”

“We started this place in 2014 to service the lumber needs of local folks. There are not many places you can get exotic lumbers,” said Tom Dean.

Serving 125 members of the local woodturning community is another stream. “We saw a real opportunity to service the local community. We do some contractor business, but I have another warehouse that we pull from for stair treads, stair moldings, boards. “

One of the accomplishments the family is proud of is the company’s role in helping to redeck the Battleship North Carolina in the 1990s, said Tom Dean.

“I handled that from start to finish,” he said. “That was a highlight of my career. That’s Burmese teak, and the Burmese ambassador was here for the unveiling.”

For a recent project Tom Dean’s son, Townsend, urged him to make unique cutting and cheese boards.

“We have the kids working here on the weekend…My youngest when he was about 10 would draw surfboards in wood scraps; then market them as surfboard sushi boards. We are now making some professional-looking ones,” he said.

A portion of the proceeds of the cutting and sushi boards goes to Kids Making It, a nonprofit woodworking program for at-risk youth.

“We like to give back to the community,” Tom Dean said.

Matt and Tom Dean are two of five sons in the family, while the grandchildren number nine boys and one girl. They can’t predict who will take the reins, but they are pleased to have preserved the family business.

“We’ve seen an increase in business every month since opening in summer of 2014,” Tom Dean said.