The McClain Family

Arizona Heritage Cabinetry of Tucson, Arizona
Building Cabinets & Fine Woodwork for over 150 Years

My family has been building homes and cabinetry in Arizona for over 150 years. My first ancestor, Edson Barney, arrived in Arizona in 1858 (it was still called New Mexico Territory at the time) and helped to build homes in and around the many new settlements in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. He was responsible for setting up one of the first saw mills in the territory and for supplying all of the building material for the homes and furniture he built.

His son, Danielson Barney, settled permanently in Thatcher, Arizona in 1874. He built furniture and cabinetry for homes in Thatcher, Safford and many other communities in the area. The building style he and others used became known as “Territorial” or “Santa Fe”.

By the early 1900’s, (before power machines were introduced), my family was involved in woodworking in many of the townships along the Gila River from Safford to Globe and Miami. Danielson’s son-in-law, Charles Coon, began his career in Thatcher (working for Danielson). He moved on to working as cabinet maker and carpenter for many of the mining companies in Bisbee, Mogollon and Miami/Globe. Charles’ son-in-law, Frank Cochran, began working with him in about 1917. For some time they worked together at the Inspiration Mine Company in Globe. By the early 1940’s my father, uncles and grandfather were building as far north as Phoenix and as far west as Los Angeles and San Diego. My uncle Donald Thomas started his own construction company in Phoenix and another uncle (Harry McClain) started his own construction company in Tucson. My Great Uncle Robert Worth remodeled houses in Los Angeles in the 1920’s and 1930’s. And my father, Bennett McClain, began building homes and cabinetry in the 1940’s. So I grew up under the watchful eyes of my father, uncles and grandfather. I learned the old methods of building using my father’s and grandfather’s hand tools (which I still own). I later learned the use and value of high quality power tools to cut, mill, turn, plane and sand wood to create beautiful finished cabinetry and furniture. Still, with all the power tools in the shop, nothing leaves without being subject to some form of hand workmanship.

While I graduated as a civil engineer from the U.S. Army School of Engineering, I learned much more from the generations that preceded me. Six generations of men who loved woodworking passed knowledge and tools from hand to hand and mind to mind.

It is from this heritage, in Arizona, that our Arizona Heritage Cabinetry was born.