On Dec. 20, 1878, the Canadian Bank of Commerce opened a branch in the prospering village of Seaforth. Article content

Under manager M. P. Hayes, Seaforth’s branch was only the Commerce’s 34 th branch. Like its present central location on Seaforth’s Main Street, the branch remains at the core of the area’s commercial community. Article content

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The original branch’s location was on the ground floor of the Commercial Hotel. By 1883, the branch had built a clapboard frame building on Seaforth’s Main Street. Like all banks in agricultural communities, it loaned money to farmers who borrowed in the spring and repaid debts after the harvest. It also issued letters of credit and loaned money for household mortgages. Banks charged modest interest rates bu

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