The Doherty name is well known in Canadian Piano & Organ manufacturing history. The firm originally started as “”Doherty & Menzies”” 1868 as a furniture and music retailer. In 1875, William Doherty begin building organs under the name of “W. Doherty & Company” in Clinton, Ontario. By 1879 W. Doherty & Company had expanded into two large buildings and were building 100 organs a month. In 1898 the entire Doherty plant burned, and new factories were erected which could produce up to 400 organs a month.

In 1905 the firm started manufacturing pianos and the name of the firm was changed to “The Doherty Piano & Organ Company”.   In 1913, the firm again changed its name to ““Doherty Pianos, Ltd.””.   William Doherty retired in 1920 at which time the firm was sold to the large Sherlock-Manning Company. Sherlock-Manning continued to build the Doherty name well into the 1960s.