Elijah Sells was born in 1858 in Muscatine. He studied in the public schools and he attended the Baker University briefly. Although he did not obtain a degree from the University, the Baker University awarded him with the honorary degree. When he was just 16 years old, Elijah Sells worked in the company called Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad. He was smart and he was quickly promoted.

What they are famous for

After several years of hard work in the railroads projects, Elijah Sells was promoted to be the Dockery Commission. There, he met his friend and future business partner, Haskins.

Elijah Sells and Haskins later formed the Haskins & Sells firm. This firm became the famous accounting firm among all American firms. In that period of time, most of the accounting firms were the UK firms. But Elijah Sells formed the good firm with American culture and American people.

In 1896, Elijah Sells became one of the few New York certified public accountants there. After the death of Haskin in 1903, Elijah Sells took a larger role in the firm as the senior partner. The great work done by Elijah Sells formed the important base for the firm to become part of Deloitte in the later time.

How they affected the world today

Elijah Sells received the outstanding award from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. This award was one of the important things that Certified Public Accountants would like to obtain. It is because the award was only given to the one who scored the highest in the examinations. Since Elijah Sells was a successful accountant in the US back then, the award was recognized as a reputable thing because this famous accountant also got that award. This indirectly helped the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to be the famous accounting institutes.

Pursue of quality accounting work is one of the influences that this person put to us. Accountants usually face dilemma when they handle some of the accounting projects. But Elijah Sells provided clear guidelines for people to follow in his own accounting firm. Later, when the firm grows to be part of the Deloitte & Touche, those principles and guidelines helped the Deloitte staff to understand more about the role of accountants in the business world as well as the good case practices that people should follow in the accounting world. This was a simple but important move that Elijah Sells has tried and this provided the accounting world with a reliable and strong firm nowadays, which is DTT firm.

In conclusion, Elijah Sells was an important accountant in the history of American accountancy. He was one of the leaders in guiding American accountants to the better future. Since then, the world was no longer dominated by the accountants from the England. More and more people found that the US accountants were also reliable and they provided more and more opportunities for the US accountants to excel in the world so Elijah Sells contributed a lot to us.