Of Quaker descent, William Milnor Roberts was born to Thomas Paschall and Mary Louise (Baker) Roberts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 12, 1810. One of the most prolific American civil engineers of his generation, Roberts participated in numerous pioneering canal and railroad projects in eastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere, including overseas, during his long 56-year career.
Non-military engineering schools did not exist in the early 1800s, but William showed an aptitude and interest for mathematics at an early age. He received private tutoring during his early years, and he received his first employment in civil engineering as a chainman on the Union Canal of Pennsylvania under Chief Engineer Canvas White in the spring of 1825. At age 18, he was promoted to the team in charge of the construction of the most difficult section of the Lehigh Canal.
Roberts held many positions of responsibility during his civil engineering career. He participated in some of the earliest railway engineering in the U.S., initially on a nine-mile gravity line to transport quarry stone. The first passenger car in the nation was pulled on this railroad in 1827. It was owned by the Union Canal Company, a network of east-west canals and connecting railroads spanned Pennsylvania form Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. In 1830, Roberts served as Resident Engineer of the Union Railroad and feeder of the Union Canal. He was placed in charge of repairs of damage to the Pennsylvania State Canal caused by a flood in 1832. The most important engineering work constructed under his charge was the Allegany Portage Railroad in Pennsylvania crossing the Allegany Mountains by means of ten inclined planes and intermediate civil works (1831-1834). Roberts served as Chief Engineer of the Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad and the Cumberland Valley Railroad in 1835 to 1838.
Roberts led Monongahela River improvements, Pennsylvania State Canal construction works, and the Erie Canal and Ohio River improvements (for which he was appointed U.S. Civil Engineer). Roberts served as associate chief engineer in construction of Eads Bridge across Mississippi River at St. Louis in 1868. He was Chief Engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad from 1869 to 1879.
Roberts did important work in Brazil for their national government starting in 1857. He initially served as senior member of a firm of American contractors who bid on a major railway project there. The six-month field survey of the Upper Sao Francisco River in which he participated personally was the most difficult and important of the tasks that he undertook in Brazil.
William married Annie Gibson in June 1837, and they had six children. Anne died in 1857; William married Adeline de Beelen-Bertholff in November 1868, and the couple had four children. Roberts was elected as a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1876. From 1873 to 1878, Roberts served as vice-president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and in 1878, he served as president of the Society. Roberts died of typhoid fever in Soledad, Brazil on July 14,1881. Milnor, North Dakota, was named after several individuals associated with the Northern Pacific (NP) railroad, including Roberts and William Edward Milnor, the first telegrapher at the NP's Milnor Station. In 1923, the Engineering Building on the campus of Montana State College (now University) was named in Roberts’ honor. William Milnor Roberts' papers have been archived at the Montana State University Archives and Special Collections.
References Montana State University Archives West: William Milnor Roberts Papers, 1828-1959. (https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv01281)
Wikipedia Entry for William Milnor Roberts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Milnor_Roberts)
