McCausey Lumber Company was founded in the early 1900's by Mr. John W. McCausey, as a distributor of timbers, rail road ties and wooden barrel slats. In 1936, John's son, Thomas J. McCausey joined the company, and helped expand the family business into supplying the builder trades. In the early 1940's, Mr. George T. Gilleran, a builder and long time customer of McCausey Lumber, partnered with Thomas McCausey and together they went into the box and pallet business, servicing the military with packaging needs for the wartime efforts. In 1947, the business was moved to Detroit, Michigan where it continued to service the builder trades and fabricate specialty boxes and pallets. Upon the passing of Thomas McCausey in 1948, George T. Gilleran purchased the entire business from the McCausey estate.

Over the years, several of George's immediate family members worked for the business, in between schooling and military obligations. In 1954, Mr. Kenneth R. Roach, George's son-in-law joined the company as a salesman soliciting business from the commercial construction trades. In 1960, George's son James R. Gilleran finished college and returned to McCausey Lumber on a full time basis as General Manager. The company continued to prosper, primarily servicing the contractor trades. Upon the passing of George Gilleran in April 1972, Jim and Ken purchased McCausey Lumber from the family estate.

In the early 70's, as the Metro Detroit market became saturated with builder supply yards, Jim and Ken made the bold decision to diversify the business. The objective was to become more wholesale oriented and less dependent upon sales of typical construction type items. McCausey Lumber Company began importing and aligned itself with some of the world's leading producers of specialty wood products in Scandinavia and Europe. Within a relatively short period of time, McCausey was representing producers in Finland, Germany, and eventually Asia, and South America.