This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
Humble Beginnings, the Alpha Chapter in Ohio
"At nine o'clock on the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 1839, eight earnest young men, all students at Miami University, held the first meeting of Beta Theta Pi in the Hall of the Union Literary Society, an upper room in the old college building known as "Old Main".
College life certainly differed greatly from today, as the University of Miami in Ohio was an all-men's school with only 135 students and 6 professors.
The eight founders were originally part of literary societies within the university, yet these did not fulfill all of a student's mental, social, and emotion needs. So they created something different.
Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, and Sigma Chi make up what is known as the Miami Triad, a group of three early fraternities founded at the same university during the mid-19th century.
