Thoughtfully sourced and respectfully built by hand just for you.
My name is John Church.
I grew up the son of a farmer.
Heart of the midwest, in Stockholm, Wisconsin with roots that dug deep.
We were taught that hard work and good morals can bring you so much farther in life than good luck.
And that's how I've chosen to live.
My Dad and I were sitting at the kitchen table having a frank conversation about death and caskets. While this is an unusual conversation to have in a family, it was something that meant a lot to my Dad. He knew of may families that had had signifigant bills and even debt from funeral expences. He believed that funerals had just gotten to expensive.
It's a significant expense that most people need to take into account when making a financial plan for their life.
So we talked about working together to make simple wooden pine caskets for people who either can't, or don't want to afford the extravagant costs of the ornate caskets we traditionally see at funerals today.
But then we dug deeper.
Besides the cost, as a farmer, my Dad agonized over the idea of putting harmful and undessecary products back into the earth like cement, steel, and formadelhyde.
When we bury a loved one with a traditional funeral process and traditional casket and vault, we are filling our precious earth with these unnatural materials.
My father understood the value of protecting the earth whenever possible, and this drove us to explore making Cremation Urns.
Unfortunately, I never got to make those urns with Dad. He passed away in 1990 while we were still discussing making this a reality. So my brother and I built a beautiful black walnut urn from a tree on our Dads farm. The wood was sawn by my Dad and my brothers on Dads saw mill, and air-dried in the machine shed.
At the time, a cremation urn was not the lumber's intended purpose, but after dad died we decided to use a small amount of this stately tree for his urn. I still have some limber from that tree. I have planned to use that lumber for urns for my siblings if they so desire. We still own some of the Stockholm farmland that my parents bought in 1963 that produced this tree. Today, the timber still grows there, the creek still flows and the land still produces crops like Dad always knew it would.
Years had passed since we built that first urn and the idea never left my mind. Over the next several years I built several urns for family and friends and a few caskets too. I knew there were, and are many people like my Dad that didn't want to create unnecessary waste or a financial burden on their family with a traditional casket funeral.
With that said, it's important for family members to have a funeral that’s respectful, beautiful and with a personal touch.
My wife and I started our family in Red Wing MN. I was given the gift of working for Red Wing Shoes at SB Foot Tannery for a few years, learning the ropes and observing just how a successful U.S. company is operated from the inside out. I wanted to know what it takes to build something of high-quality and deliver it to the American people with honesty and integrity like Red Wing Shoe has been doing for over 100 years.
In 2016, when our kids were grown, I resigned my position and my wife Kelly and I moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I opened my own Red Wing Shoe Dealership here with the goal of using that business to support my dream of building high quality, American-made cremation urns.
We worked hard, made difficult decisions and lived with a great deal of patience until the time was right to launch Maple Nail. I’m now turning Dad's and my dreams into a reality.
Maple Nail Cremation Urns are 100% Handmade in my small Wisconsin workshop. I source US made materials because local and America are important to me.
My mission is to bring heirloom quality urns to people at a delicate time, when they need care, compassion and intentional support the most.
John Church
