Happy birthday Miamisburg: City marks start of 200th year

Miamisburg marks the beginning of its 200th year this week. While the city is planning a full slate of bicentennial festivities for 2018, here are four significant dates associated with Miamisburg history:

Feb. 20, 1818: Four Pennsylvania men - Emanuel Gebhart, Jacob Kercher, Dr. John Treon and Dr. Peter Treon - offered at public auction the sale 90 lots in the new town of Miamisburg.

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Situated on the left bank of the Miami River, the plat was divided into square lots containing one-fifth of an acre. The name Miamisburg was derived from the Miami Indian tribe that resided there, combining “Miamis” with “burg,” which denotes a borough or town. By 1832, the unincorporated community had become a village and achieved city status about 100 years later.

June 11, 1888: The Miamisburg High School Alumni Association forms 15 years after the first graduating class at Miamisburg High School. In a meeting at City Hall, the organization would be called the Miamisburg Alumni Association.

The Miamisburg High School Alumni Association is the oldest running high school alumni association in the United States, having held a get-together each year since its inception.

1920: The Miamisburg Mound, one of the two largest conical mounds in eastern North America, becomes a park when Charles F. Kettering of Dayton purchased it from the heirs of John Treon.

Kettering gave the land with its mound to the Ohio Historical Society in 1929. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Once serving as an ancient burial site, the landmark at 900 Mound Ave. is perhaps the most recognizable historic landmark in Miamisburg. The mound, 65 feet tall and 800 feet in circumference, contains 54,000 cubic yards of earth. The mound is visible from several miles away because it stands atop a 100 foot high ridge above the Great Miami River.

Oct. 3, 1920: Miamisburg native Lou Partlow scores what many believe to be the first touchdown in National Football League history as the Dayton Triangles defeat the Columbus Panhandles, 14-0.

Partlow played for the Triangles, a sponsored by three factories founded by Dayton businessmen Edward Deeds and Charles Kettering, after starting in 1914 with the West Carrollton Paper Company team, where he earned the nickname “West Carrollton Battering Ram” due to his training routine which involved deliberately smashing into trees.

Sources: Ohio Historical Society, Miamisburg Historical Society and the city of Miamisburg.