American Association of Public Accountants (1908)

              The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 14, No. 2 Fall 1987
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS (1908)*
By Thos. Cullen Roberts, C.P.A., Secretary of the Association
It may be said that the American Association of Public Accountants is of Anglo-American origin. Its birthplace was the office of a firm of English Chartered Accountants, 120 Broad-way, New York City, the business place of Messrs. Barrow, Wade, Guthrie & Co., whose representative we should have been glad to welcome here to-day.
The names of those present deserve immortalizing — they are John Heins of Philadelphia, W. H. Veysey, Thomas Bagot, Louis M. Bergtheil, Mark C. Mirick, E. H. Sewell, Walter H. Veysey, James Yalden, and Col. Tyler, all of New York.
The first meeting recorded was on Friday, December 2, 1887. The certificate of incorporation is dated August 20, 1887, so the Association comes of age this year.
Its aims were high. The objects as set forth in the certifi-cate of incorporation were "to associate into a society or guild for their mutual benefit and advantage, the best and most capable public accountants practising in the United States, and through such Association to elevate the profession of public accountancy as a whole, and to promote the efficiency and usefulness of such society by compelling the observance of strict rules of conduct as a condition of membership, and by establishing a high standard of professional attainments through general education and knowledge."
The living and the dead are brought very close together — with the birth of the Association is recorded at the first meeting of its members, the death of Mr. Robert L. Fabian, who was president of the Council of Incorporators, and, glancing at the
*As published on pp. 116-124, Twenty-First Anniversary Year-Book, (1908) of the American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA), forerunner of the American Institute of CPAs. These addresses were presented at the AAPA annual banquet on October 22, 1908.