Where It Started
Chuck Stewart, owner of Madison Iron and Wood, became a craftsman at a very young age. His father was a carpenter and had a small wood shop where he and his dad would make a variety of woodcrafts. His family was not well-off by any means and the tools they used were typically whatever his father could find at auctions. Nonetheless, he taught him how to create with his hands and to use his imagination. Together, they used a variety of tools to shape wood into toys, bird boxes, decorations… whatever their hearts desired. At school, Chuck loved his art classes, but industrial arts was where he thrived.
Learning through Experience
Fast forwarding a few years, Chuck decided to join the military like his father and his father before him. Serving as a combat engineer, he learned discipline, honor, comradery, brotherhood, and occasionally how to blow stuff up. 😊 He was stationed at Fort Hood, TX and
Germany. He married his high school sweetheart, Chrissy, and their first child, Lexi, was born while he was stationed in Germany. He gained a wider perspective of the world around him through his travels and deployments, along with a strong desire to build a family and a life back home in Indiana. Chuck and Chrissy were determined to give their children more opportunities than they had, so they each worked diligently to further their education throughout Chuck’s military service.
After leaving the Army, the family spent a year in Indianapolis before moving back home to Madison, where their sons, Blaine and Ethan, were born. While raising their growing family, Chuck worked nights in a factory and attended college during the day and Chrissy continued her education. Chuck finished his bachelor’s degree and worked in many technical capacities, including electrician, industrial maintenance supervisor, metal fabricator, manufacturing engineer, energy management engineer, and product manager. He acquired a wide variety of skills that were a perfect foundation for starting his business. Chrissy also completed her bachelor’s degree in accounting and passed the CPA exam on her first try.
TURNING A DREAM INTO REALITY
Chuck always had a dream to own a business where his kids could work with him if they chose. He wanted to pass down his skills to his kids so they could have the kind of life he was not afforded at a young age. In 2016, Madison Iron and Wood was born.
He started the business in their attached garage, where he welded small ornamental post caps and baked on the powder coat finish in a regular sized kitchen oven. He learned how to run an e-commerce business from start to finish. In 2017, he added a small pole barn at his home to further grow the business. That same year, he bought a plasma table and built his own paint booth and larger oven. This allowed him to begin producing metal art, brackets, mailbox décor, and larger products such as gates.
Along the way, Blaine and Ethan became craftsmen themselves, learning the fabrication skills necessary for the business. Chuck pored himself into learning the ins and outs of growing a successful business. He learned about sales and marketing, customer service, packaging, and logistics. Chrissy took on tax, payroll, and other finance-related duties while also being employed elsewhere. Early on, while establishing his brand, sales were made through online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay. Chuck learned how to create a website and later set Ethan on a path to learn about website development while he was still in high school. Today, the website serves as the primary sales generator.
The growing business quickly outgrew the little pole barn. In 2019 they purchased and improved a larger shop and transferred production equipment and activities in July 2020. In this new larger space, they were able to add new equipment and expand personnel in order to introduce new product lines such as decorative fence panels and brackets.
NOT DONE YET
While we are proud of what we have accomplished over the first ten years, we are not done yet. Blaine and Ethan see a brighter and bigger future for Madison Iron and Wood. They have great confidence in their abilities to serve our customers in personal ways that a large company cannot. We literally pour ourselves into each other and this
business every day… it is truly a labor of love.
Chuck and his family work hard at making their business successful, as this is their passion and their future. Chuck knows the only way to be a truly successful business is to treat others as you want to be treated and he has been careful to pass along this conviction to his sons and employees. He expects them to be honest, respectful, and attentive to each and every customer, regardless of whether it leads to a sale.
LET US BE A PART OF YOUR FAMILY THROUGH CRAFTSMANSHIP
We hope you enjoyed learning about our family and our company’s history. As always, thank you for your support of our veteran-owned family business. If you have any questions about any of our products or how we can help you, please reach out to us through our “contact us” page. While we have many standard products, we can also do custom fabrication.
Some of the key products that we specialize in are:
- Decorative Fence Panels, Gate, and Posts – This is what Chuck loves to create
- Decorative Exposed Beam Brackets
- Decorative Privacy Panels
- Unique Fence Post Caps and Nautical Rope Holders
- Decorative and Personalized Metal Signs
COMING IN THE FUTURE
- Fire pits and accessories – A complementary product line to complete your backyard dreams.
- Wood products
– Chuck is excited to get back to working with wood.
Check Out Some of Our Past Projects
Just a few projects and products throughout the years
