Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Miami post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Miami’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Miami.
Miami was founded by Isaac Herrell and platted in 1849 by Isaac's brother James. Their other brother Austin started the first church and school in his home. James' son Beecher opened the first grocery store. The community took its name from Miami County.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Miami, cut from the printed page as they were published.
At this time, Charles Rapp lived on the Miami County side, and the depot consisted of an old box car, the mail being generally carried around in Charlie’s pockets. Early in 1868 the Railroad Company commenced their buildings, and soon after a boarding-house was built by Charles Dearworth, and called the 11 Locust House.” In this same year, William Romans, master mechanic of the •Cincinnati, Columbus & Indiana Central Railroad, laid out some lots on the Miami County side, and Dan Rice, who was foreman of the roundhouse, bought some land and laid out lots, which he sold, this being also in Miami County. Lots
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Monroe Township is in the southern tier of townships running east and west, in Miami County, and is bounded on the north by Concord Township, while .the Great Miami River separates it from Staunton and Bethel on the east ; Montgomery County bounds it on the south, and Union, the southwestern township of Miami County, on the west. It contains thirty-six full and six fractional sections, making, in all, about nineteen thousand three hundred and twenty acres. In the beginning of the present century, when the few hardy men reached here from South Carolina, they found the forest unbroken for miles around ; not a spot of
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Through the townships of Harrison, Clay and Deer Creek, in the southwestern part of the county, Deer Creek flows in a westerly direction, crossing the western boundary line into Ca.ss county three miles north of the southwest corner of Miami. Farther south is South Deer creek, and near the village of Miami the Middle Fork empties into the main stream. North of the Wabash river the principal creeks are Flowers, Weesau (also written Wesaw), and Washoni's. The Big and Little Weesau creeks drain a large part of Union township and unite near the north-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Miami post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.