Fountain-Ferrara & Murphy & Co. CPAs (previously named Joe Fountain Jr. & Co.) was started in February of 1973 and has come full circle in 36 years.  In that 36 years, it has had four (4) name changes.  Those name changes were subject to the injection of new partners into the firm and the firm’s growth.

Mr. Bill Bass was the first partner in the firm.  He was part of an Audit team from Moore & Powell, CPA that was made up of him, Mr. Fountain and Jude McDonald.  Mr. Bass knew how Mr. Fountain worked and Mr. Fountain knew how Mr. Bass worked.  They handed the audits for the City of Waveland, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Biloxi Water and Sewer, Biloxi School District, Frank P. Carso and Dees Chevrolet. 

Mr. Fountain left Moore and Powell CPAs in January 1973 and started his own firm.  There were  several clients that wanted to follow Mr. Fountain when he left Moore and Powell, but Mr. Fountain would not handle any of them because he gave his word to Mr. Sam Powell and he also signed a 5 year agreement. 

Mr. Bass wanted to leave Moore & Powell and join Mr. Fountain.  Mr. Fountain agreed and the firm named changed to Fountain & Bass.  Mr. Bass was about 15 years Mr. Fountain’s senior.  Around 1979, Mr. Bass started having health problems which encouraged his decision to go into early retirement.  Mr. Fountain bought him out and not long after Mr. Bass passed away. 

When Mr. Fountain started this practice in 1973, He started with one $35.00 a month account.  When Mr. Bass passed away, we had around 500 individual tax returns, 100 to 125 business returns and that many monthly write up accounts.  We were growing, but my good friend and partner, Mr. Bass was gone. 

Mr. Bass and Mr. Fountain set up the books, etc. for the D’Iberville Water and Sewer Department at its inception in 1979, we did the Water and Sewer audit every year thereafter.  

Mr. Bass and Mr. Fountain, along with Mr. Mosher, did the incorporation work for the City of D’Iberville and its First City audit along with the Water and Sewer audits.  When Mr. Bass passed away in 1988, Mr. Mosher and Mr. Fountain continued the audit until the year end 2001 audit was complete and I retired. 

Mr. Fountain had a young lady working as a staff accountant, Mrs. Seymour, that had worked for him since 1973.  Mrs. Seymour had proved to be a good accountant.  Mr. Fountain thought instead of letting her run away and look for another job, he would give her a small share in the company, providing she would get her EA license.  She accepted and on January 1, 1986, the firm name changed to Fountain, Seymour & Associates. 

We went from a two room office before Mr. Bass came, then to a 1500 square foot office when Mr. Bass came and until Mr. Bass retired.  After Mr. Bass, Mr. Fountain built a 5500 sq. ft. office building which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. 

We continued to operate as Fountain & Seymour until 1989, when a childhood friend of mine, Robert Mosher, CPA, talked to me about a merger.  We were already working together on the City of D’Iberville’s account and had been doing so for the last three (3) years or so.  We had always gotten along, so why not?  

In October 1989, Mr Mosher joined our firm & the name changed to Fountain, Seymour, Mosher & Associates, Inc.  Mr. Fountain was still the managing partner, with 63% ownership, Mosher 25% and Seymour 12%. 

The firm continued to grow by leaps and bounds and by April 15, 2001, we were doing around 1400 to 1500 individual tax returns and over 300 business returns.  Write up work was in excess of 200 clients per month, plus Tax Representation & Financial Planning.  We had gone from a 2 person firm in 1973 to a high of 12 employees in 2001, Mr. Fountain had to retire for health reasons and sell his investment to the partners of interest in the firm. 

This seemed to work well for a while.  Mr. Fountain would go into the office during tax season to help hold the clients and it seemed everyone was happy.  Then all of a sudden, payments stopped on the partnership buy out in April of 2005 and not another one was received before Hurricane Katrina.  Hurricane Katrina came to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.  We were no exception; it destroyed our office building, my mom and dad’s home, as well as my dad’s brother and sister’s home and my youngest son’s home.

 A few weeks after the Hurricane, Mr. Fountain received a call from Mr. Mosher, the managing partner of Fountain, Seymour, Mosher & Associates.  He stated that because of Hurricane Katrina destroying the building, the insurance company not willing to reimburse for storm damages, most of the clients’ businesses having been destroyed, it would be a long time before Accounting Firms would be needed in this area.  Therefore, he was going to layoff all of the accountants and clerical people that had been employed by us for years.  The partners were all going their separate ways leaving Mr. Fountain with an unpaid mortgage on a destroyed building and no retirement income.

 Mr. Fountain and his wife talked about this situation and agreed that it was time to go back to work, so we started in mid November trying to place orders, etc.  Finally, a 16’ x 76’ mobile home was delivered and set up right along side our old office building and we opened the doors on February 1, 2006.  The name on the sign now is Fountain-Ferrara, Murphy, & Co. CPAs. Our old clients have been great and our new clients are wonderful.  We are thankful as we have been working 7 days a week, between 12 to 14 hours a day up until July of 2009 we started cutting back some. 

When we started again after the hurricane, it was just Mr. Fountain and his wife.  Now, we have hired 2 ½ clerical, 3 CPAs, 1 Senior Accountant, Mr. Fountain and his wife.  The Lord has been good to us and we thank you and our clients and our potential clients.   

If we can be of any assistance, please feel free to give us a call at 228-392-3323 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 Remember, our first appointment is FREE, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Take a few minutes out of your busy day, make an appointment, come and see us.  Let us help you with your tax problems, your accounting problems or your financial planning problems.  We look forward to serving you.