William Milnor Roberts

William Milnor Roberts (February 12, 1810 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – July 14, 1881 in Soledad, Brazil)[1] was an American civil engineer. Roberts was one of the most prolific and prominent civil engineer of his generation in the United States. As a young civil engineer, he was involved in the construction of the Eads Bridge, held the title of the chief engineer of Northern Pacific Railroad, and was president of the American Society of Civil Engineers scarcely two decades after its founding,

William Milnor Roberts

Early life and career

Roberts was born to Thomas Paschall and Mary Louise (Baker) Roberts.[2]

He was educated in the best private schools in the city of Pennsylvania. He spent two terms taking a special course in mathematics taught by Joseph Roberts, a prominent mathematician, and a course in architectural drawing under John Haviland at the Franklin Institute.

He pursued a career in civil engineering on the advice of Samuel Mifflin, then president of the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania and friend of his father. He took up employment at the Union Canal of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1825, and at the age of 18 was promoted to be the head of the team that was in charge of the most difficult section of the Lehigh canal.[1] He continued to further his education, focusing on mathematics, after starting his career in engineering.[1] [3]

Career
  • 1826: Served as an assistant in survey and construction, Lehigh Canal, between Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.
  • 1831 to 1834: Served as senior assistant engineer for the proposed Allegheny Portage Railroad, and general manager from 1834 to 1835.
  • 1837: Served as a chief engineer in Lancaster and Harrisburg. He was in charge of construction of a two-level lattice-truss bridge across the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
  • 1834 to 1840: In charge of extensions of Pennsylvania Canals; Bellefontaine and Indiana, Allegheny Valley, Atlantic and Mississippi, and Iron Mountain.
  • 1855 to 1857: Chairman, Commission to Consider Reconstruction of Allegheny Portage; constructed railroads in Middle West.
  • 1865: he contracted to build Don Pedro Segundo, Brazil. In 1866, he proposed improvements to the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa.
  • 1868: Served as associate chief engineer in construction of Eads Bridge across Mississippi River at St. Louis.
  • 1869 to 1879: Engineer-in-chief of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He served as vice-president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1876 and president in 1878. In 1878 -1879, Roberts led the survey party that explored the cascade mountain passes for route location.
  • 1879 to 1881: A member of the Mississippi River Jetty Commission and chief engineer, all public works in Brazil.
  • 1873 to 1878: He served as vice-president of the American Society of Civil Engineers from and as president in 1878.

Works
  • Cumberland Valley Railroad Company, & Roberts, W. M. (1835). Report of William Milnor Roberts, chief engineer of the Cumberland Valley Rail Road Company, made to the Board, on the 23d Oct., 1835. Philadelphia: J.C. Clark, printer.
  • Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and Lancaster Railroad Company., & Roberts, W. M. (1836). Report of the chief engineer to the president and directors of the Harrisburg and Lancaster Rail Road Company. Middletown, Pa: Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad Company.
  • Cumberland Valley Railroad Company. (1837). Second report of William Milnor Roberts chief engineer of the Cumberland valley rail road company, made to the Board, 29th December 1836. Chambersburg, Pa: Hickok & Blood. OCLC Number: 84618930 (Roberts also made a third report to the Board in 1837, see OCLC Number: 950908210
  • Roberts, W. M., & Clark, J. C. (1838). Third annual report of W. Milnor Roberts, chief engineer of the Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad Company: Made to the board, January 8th, 1838. Philadelphia: Printed by John C. Clark.
  • Roberts, W. M. (1846). Report to the Board of directors: On the Sandy & Beaver Canal. New Lisbon, Ohio: J. Wilkinson, printer.
  • Roberts, W. M., Columbia-Philadelphia Railroad., & Pennsylvania. (1848). Report of W. Milnor Roberts, Esq., (civil engineer,) on the survey of a route to avoid the Schuylkill inclined plane, on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad: Authorized by the act of the eleventh April, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, entitled "An act to provide for the ordinary expenses of government," &c. Philadelphia?: publisher not identified.
  • Roberts, W. M. (1850). Report on the preliminary surveys for the Bellefontaine & Indiana rail road company. Pittsburgh,Pa.: Printed by Johnson & Stockton. See also for map of railroad
  • Allegheny Valley Railroad Company., & Haven, W. S. (1853). Report on the surveys of the Allegheny Valley rail road: Read before the president and board, July 26, 1853. Pittsburg: Printed by W.S. Haven. OCLC Number: 10807508
  • Roberts, W. M., Erie and North East Railroad Company., & Constitution Book and Job Office (Firm). (1856). Report relative to the surveys of routes for the Pittsburg and Erie rail road: Read at a meeting of the stockholders of the Erie and North East Rail Road Company at Erie, July 8, 1856. Erie, Penn: Printed at the Constitution Book and Job Office.
  • Roberts, W. M. (1856). Improvement of the Ohio River. Pittsburgh: Published by order of the Board of Trade.
  • Roberts, W. M., & Jay Cooke & Co. (1866). Report on the present state and prospects of the North Missouri Railroad: Upon examinations made for Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co. by W. Milnor Roberts, consulting engineer, June, 1866. Philadelphia: McLaughlin Bros.
  • Roberts, W. M. (1868). Report of W. Milnor Roberts, consulting engineer, to the president and managers of the Erie Canal Company of Pennsylvania. Erie, Pa: Republican Print.
  • Roberts, W. M., & Jay Cooke & Co. (1869).Special Report of a reconnoissance [sic] of the route for the Northern Pacific Railroad between Lake Superior and Puget Sound via the Columbia River, Philadelphia?: J. Cooke & Co.?.
  • Roberts, W. M., Flad, H., & Whitman, T. J. (1869). Preliminary report with reference to extension of the new Pittsburgh Water Works.
  • Northern Pacific Railroad Company., Roberts, W. M., & Joseph Meredith Toner Collection (Library of Congress). (1874). Report of the chief engineer on the unfinished portion of the Northern Pacific Railroad: Made to the president of the company, April 27, 1874. New York: Evening Post Steam Presses.
  • Roberts, W. M., (1874), Engineering, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1874, Vol. II, Issue 1, Pg. 69-80
  • Philadelphia (Pa.)., & Roberts, W. M. (1875). Report on the water supply for the city of Philadelphia: Made by the commission of engineers appointed by the mayor under the ordinance of councils, approved June 5, 1875. Philadelphia: E.C. Markley & Son, printers.
  • Roberts, W. M., (1878) Reminiscences and experiences of Early Engineering Operations on Railroads, With Special Reference to Steep Inclines, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1878, Vol. VII, Issue 1, Pg. 197-215
  • Relatorio de W. Milnor Roberts, engenheiro chefe da Commissão hydraulica sobre o exame do Rio S. Francisco: Desde o mar até a cachoeira de Pirapóra : extensão de 2.122 kilometros : feito em 1879-1880.Roberts, W. M., Roberts, W. M., Derby, O. A., & Sampaio, T. (1880), Rio de Janeiro: Typographia nacional.

Family

He married Annie Gibson in June, 1837. They had up to six children together, including his son Milnor Roberts. Anne died in 1857. He later married Adeline de Beelen-Bertholff in November, 1868 with whom he had four children.

Death

Milnor died of typhoid fever in Soledad, Brazil, July 14, 1881.[4]

Legacy
  • Milnor, North Dakota, was named after several individuals associated with the Northern Pacific (NP) railroad, William Edward Milnor, the first telegrapher at the NP's Milnor Station, and William Milnor Roberts, the chief engineer of the railroad.[5]
  • In 1923, the engineering building on the Montana State College campus was named in his honor.[4]

References
  1. An Obituary Notice of William Milnor Roberts, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 20, No. 111 (Jan. - Jun., 1882), pp. 199-202, Published by: American Philosophical Society, Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/982713, Page Count: 4
  2. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, E-ISSN 1753-7843, Volume 68 Issue 1882, 1882, pp. 304-311,PART 2, OBITUARY. WILLIAM MILNOR ROBERTS, 1810-1881. Accessed at , Published Online: June 05, 2015
  3. "Family tree of W. Milnor ROBERTS".
  4. "Archives West: William Milnor Roberts Papers, 1828-1959". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  5. Milnor History Book,2008 Accessed at , See also Congressional Record material at

7. Zagros Mountains, Iran - Geographical Names, Map, Geographic Coordinates, geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=-946848&fid=821&c=brazil.


Bibliography
  • Smalley, E. V. (1883). History of the Northern Pacific Railroad. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. accessed at
  • The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. (1940) New York: James T. White, p. 447.
  • Nolan, E. W., & Roberts, W. M. (1971). Exploring the Northern Pacific Railroad route: W. Milnor Roberts' letters from the expedition of 1869. M.A. University of Oregon, OCLC Number:10282350
  • Lubetkin, M. John. (2014) Jay Cooke's Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873. University of Oklahoma Press.

Further reading
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