List of Union Pacific Railroad civil engineers 1863 to 1869



This is a partial list of Union Pacific railroad civil engineers who worked on the Union Pacific railway in its initial construction from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Promontory Summit, Utah from its groundbreaking on December 1, 1863, to its completion on May 10, 1869.

List

 * Ainsworth, Danforth Hulburt, (1828-1904) 1865-1866. (Engineer in charge of surveys, 1865; Div. Engineer)
 * Appleton, Francis Everett (1842-1877)
 * Armstrong,H.N. 1868-1869 (Division engineer - Cheyenne to Wasatch)
 * Bates, Cpt Thomas H. (1833-1927) (Division Engineer - Salt Lake City, Utah)
 * Bissell, Hezekiah (1835-1928) (Civil Engineer - UPRR, 1864-1869) Bissell was involved in the construction of the Dale Creek crossing and reportedly made the decision to use rope and chain to anchor the bridge from high winds.
 * Blickensderfer, Jacob (1816-1899)
 * Brown, Percy T. (d1867) and L. L. Hills (d1867)
 * In July 1867, Mr. Percy T. Brown, (assistant engineer) whose division extended from the North Platte to Green River, was running a line across the Laramie Plains. His party was camped on Rock Creek where they were attacked by the Sioux. Brown was out on the line with most of the party, but those in the camp were able to hold the Indians off, but a small party out after wood, under a promising young fellow named Clark, a nephew of Thurlow Weed, of New York, was killed with one of his escorts, and several of the escorts were wounded. Brown, in reconnoitering the country, ... struck 300 Sioux Indians who were on the warpath. He had with him eight men of his escort. Brown died in the fight.


 * Case, Francis M. (1835-1912) 1865-1867. (Division Engineer - UPRR)
 * Casement, John S. (1829-1909) (Casement Brothers construction, 1866-1869)
 * Dey, Peter A. (1825-1911) (Locating engineer; engineer in charge of preliminary survey-UPRR, 1863-1864.)
 * Dixon, Wiley B. 1864 (Engineering corp.)
 * Dillon, Sidney (1812-1892)
 * Dodge, Grenville Mellen (1831-1916) (Chief engineer - UPRR, 1866-1870; director, 1869-1973; U.S. representative - Iowa, 1867-1869)
 * Eddy, J. M., served with Dodge during the Civil War and part of the 1867 expedition wherein Dodge laid out the line to Cheyenne.
 * Edwards, Ogden 1864-1865. (Division engineer - UPRR)
 * Eicholtz, Col. Leonard H. (1827-1911) 1868. (Bridge Engineer - UPRR)
 * Evans, James A. (1827-1887) 1864-1869 (Division engineer - UPRR)
 * Ferguson, Arthur Northcote (1842-1906) 1865-1869. (Second assistant engineer- UPRR Eastern Division)
 * Golay, Philip, civil engineer (1827-1898). Golay worked on the UPRR Eastern Division.
 * Gray, E.F. 1869. Civil engineer
 * Harding, Henry, Civil engineer 1865-1870) (1837-1910), a Union Pacific Railroad engineer from Hartland, VT. Harding was one of the landowners shown on the map at a plot just west of Cheyenne. He entered into Norwich University in Vermont, in 1852, where he met Grenville Dodge. Harding worked on eastern railroads until 1865 when Dodge hired him to work as an assistant engineer on the Union Pacific. Harding's specific responsibility was the architectural backbone of the road; he designed bridges, station houses, roundhouses, etc. He would go on to work for the United States Engineering Corps, 1873-1890. He retired in 1890 to his hometown of Hartland.
 * Hayden, Ferdinand Vandiveer, 1868-1869. (Geologist, author - "Geology of UPRR Route")
 * Henry, John E. (Director - UPRR, 1863-1866; general superintendent and chief engineer - UPRR Eastern Division, 1864; general superintendent - N.E. road, 1864; chairman - committee on construction):
 * Hodge, James Thatcher, (1816-1871) -1863. (Geologist) succeeded by David Van Lennep (1826-1910)
 * Hodges, Fred S. (1865-1869 Engineering corp - rodman; assistant engineer):
 * House, J. E. 1864-1868. Future Chief Engineer of the UPRR, laid out townsites in Utah.
 * Hoxie, Herbert Melville (1830-1886)
 * Hudnutt, Col. Joseph Opdyke (1824-1910) 1869 (Division Engineer)


 * Hurd, Major Marshall Farnam (1823-1903) Dodge's staff engineer during the Civil War, who became unit chief in what Dodge called some of the most difficult Indian Territory. Mount Hurd is named after him.
 * Kelly, J.H., 1865. (Engineering corp - chairman)
 * Ledlie, James H. (1832 – 1882) bridge engineer
 * Maxwell, James Riddle (1836-1912)
 * McCabe, J. F.
 * Morris, Thomas Burnside (1842-1885) 1869. (Construction engineer)
 * North, Edward P. (1836-1911) Chicago, 1868-1869. (Resident Engineer)
 * O'Neill, John
 * Rawlins, John Aaron (1831–1869)
 * Reed, Samuel B. (1818-1891) (Locating engineer - UPRR, 1864-1865; engineer of construction; superintendent of operations, 1866-1869)
 * Rosewater, Andrew (b1848)
 * Seymour, Col. Silas (1817-1890)
 * Sharman, Charles H. (1841-1938) Sharman's journal of his working on the project provided the source material for Western fiction author Ernest Haycox to write a story called the "troubleshooter" in Collier's magazine in 1936. Thus, Sharman's manuscript written by a civil engineer became the basis for the movie, "Union Pacific", released in 1939.
 * Sickels, Theophilus E., 1870. (Chief engineer and superintendent - UPRR, 1870)
 * Williams, Jesse Lynch, 1864-1868. (Civil engineer; government director, 1864-1869)