Students from the American School of Osteopathy (ASO) in Kirksville, MO formalized an organization called the American Association for the Advancement of Osteopathy in 1897 (the name changed to the American Osteopathic Association in 1901).

In September 1901, C.M. Turner Hulett, D.O. wrote an article in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association documenting the charter group. The students saw a need to organize the efforts of individual physicians and colleges to advance the profession. "A committee of sixteen members, four students from each class, was appointed to formulate a plan of action," wrote Dr. Hulett. The committee put forth a constitution, and permanently established the AOA on April 19, 1897.

Minne F. Potter, D.O., a student at the ASO when the AOA was established, wrote a letter in 1937 to classmate, T.L. Ray, D.O. recalling the day:

I know that after our little bunch accepted Aunty Walker's name for "our baby," we began adding to our number as rapidly as we could. If I am correct, there are only four of us left who were the original pioneers of this organization movement who made their dreams come true. I suppose you remember the picnic supper our class had, down on the green, the afternoon we organized the AOA?

The first president, Daniel B. McAuley, D.O. announced the mission of the new organization in 1897:

The reasons for the organization are many, are obvious, are strong; and personal protection is the least of these. No; the members of this organization have laid upon them a heavier responsibility, a greater duty, than the so-called "first law of nature," self-preservation. The primary objects of the organization are, in the broadest sense, to work toward and attain all things that will truly tend to the "advancement of Osteopathy," and the rounding of it into its destined proportions as the eternal truth and vital principle of therapeutic science.