The Browning Mercantile Company was founded in 1907 by Thaddeus E. Scriver and Horace C. Willits under the name Willits and Scriver. In December 1913 the company was incorporated as the Browning Mercantile Company. Thaddeus Emery Scriver was born in Clarenceville, in the province of Quebec, Canada, on November 17, 1879, the son of James and Mary Scriver. He attended the Royal Military Academy in Toronto and Stanstead Commercial College. He then enlisted as a bugler in the Sixth Hussars under Major George H. MacFie. Following his military service, he began working for the Minneapolis Journal. There he met J.H. Sherburne who invited him to work for his newly established Sherburne Mercantile Company at the Blackfeet Indian Agency in Browning, Montana. In 1907 Scriver opened his own store with Horace C. Willits. The store served as the official trader for the Blackfeet Reservation and as a general mercantile. Thaddeus Scriver married Ellison Westgarth MacFie, daughter of his former regimental commander, in 1911. They had two sons Harold Scriver and Robert Scriver. Thaddeus was a mason and an active sportsman. He died August 14, 1971. Horace C. Willits was partner with Thaddeus E. Scriver in their mercantile business from 1907 to 1925 and was vice president of the Stockmen's State Bank in Browning. Around 1925 he moved to South Bay, Florida, where he worked for two years for the South Shore Transportation Company before setting up his own business.