Caverhill, Learmont and Company : Caverhill, Learmont and Company began in 1937 at Beauharnois, Quebec as a partnership between brothers, John and Thomas Caverhill specializing in the grain trade. In 1853 the brothers expanded their firm by adding James Crathern to the partnership which became known as Crathern and Caverhill. The new organization, now located in Montréal, moved into the hardware business. After the death of the Caverhill brothers in 1882, the business was temporarily divided between Crathern and Caverhill and a new partnership, Caverhill, Learmont & Company. Upon Crathern's retirement in 1897 the two firm's were reorganized as Caverhill, Learmont & Company. The new business being a partnership of J.R. Learmont, T.H. Newman, and Thomas Caverhill's two sons, Frank and George. During the Laurier boom the firm expanded into the newly opened Canadian west establishing warehouses in Winnipeg and Vancouver. With the death of his three partners George Caverhill became the sole proprietor of the firm in 1914.
As the business prospered its members standing rose in the Montréal financial circles. They were also astute at judging the talent with the hiring of Louis Forget at age 20 in 1873. When, in a later career, Forget became president of the Montréal Stock Exchange , he remembered Caverhill's earlier support. George Caverhill was one of a number of leading Montréal merchants who made the transition to finance capitalist. George Caverhill was president of the Montréal Loan & Mortgage Company, vice-president of Canadian Cotton Ltd., and director of several other firms in the Forget-Holt financial network. These included Montréal Light, Heat and Power, Montréal Trust, Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, Bell Canada, and the Royal Victoria Life Insurance. Caverhill Learmont and Company continued in business untill the 1980's.
