Firm: Its inception and growth;

              Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 25
The Firm: Its Inception and Growth
THE firm of Haskins and Sells had its
origin in the association of two indi­viduals
who, having had the opportunity
of testing one another over a period of a
year and a half, found pleasure and satis­faction
in mutual effort, and joined forces
with a view to working out certain common
aims and ambitions.
If these aims and ambitions had been
stated at the time, they might have been—
"To serve the public skillfully, honestly,
impartially, and well, in matters having to
do with accounting, and to obtain for ac­countancy
proper recognition as a profes­sion."
The firm opened an office at No. 2 Nas­sau
Street, New York, March 4, 1895.
The offices were removed, however, on
May 1, 1896, to the Johnston Building, 30
Broad Street, in which building Haskins
and Sells were the first tenants and where
they have since continuously maintained an
office.
In the first announcement which the firm
sent out, and which, it should be mentioned,
was before the days of state recognition
of accountancy, or societies of certified pub­lic
accountants or committees on profes­sional
ethics, attention was invited to the
qualifications of the firm members, the
kinds of clients who might need their
services and the nature of the services they
offered to render.
A copy of the announcement follows:
C. W. Haskins,
E. W. Sells,
No. 2 Nassau Street.
New York, March 4, 1895.
Having concluded our special engage­ment
with the United States Government
as Experts for the Joint Commission of
the Fifty-third Congress, authorized by
law to examine the Executive Departments,
We offer our services to corporations,
trustees, assignees, receivers, committees,
courts, municipalities, etc., to make period­ical
and special examinations of accounts
and records, investigations of affairs, re­ports
and certificates and to introduce sim­ple
and efficient methods of accounting.
Our experience has covered a period of
over twenty years in the operating, account­ing
and financial departments of railroads
and other corporations having large and di­versified
interests, and we have accom­plished
a complete revision of the account­ing
system of the United States Govern­ment.
C. W. HASKINS,
E. W. SELLS.
Among the firm's first engagements, in
April, 1895, was an examination of the
methods of accounting at Vassar College.
It came through Mr. S. D. Coykendall,
one of the trustees of Vassar College.
Mr. Coykendall, or his son, has been a
client of the firm since such time.
The engagements which followed em­braced
services for the government, states,
municipalities, insurance companies, banks
and trust companies, street and steam rail­ways,
mercantile and industrial organiza­tions
of every description. The services
of the firm on account of the extensive rail­road
experience of the founders were in
large demand for railroad work. During
the period of these early engagements,
the firm received considerable publicity
through the discovery of many serious ir­regularities
in the accounts of the auditor
of one of the railroads in the South and
his conviction on their testimony furnished
at the trial.
The growing practice in the middle west
led to the opening of an office in the Mar­quette
Building, 204 Dearborn Street, Chi­cago,
on December 1, 1900. The impor­tance
of this step was apparent when the
City of Chicago engagement soon followed.