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581 
[ Roberts. 
Oxsrruary NOTICE OF EDWARD MILLER, CiviL ENGINEER. 
? 
Prepared at the request of the American Philosophical Society, and read at 
a meeting of the Society, April 5, 1872. 
By Sotomon W. Rozerts, Civil Engineer. 
dward Miller was born in Philadelphia on the 6th of January, 1811. 
He was the third son of William Miller, who was the Secretary of the 
Philadelphia Marine Insurance Company, and had been Commissioner 
of the Revenue of the United States at the City of Washington. He was 
a gentleman of the old school, remarkable for his punctilious politeness, 
and for a high sense of honor; and was held in high esteem by many 
prominent citizens of Philadelphia, and in particular by Mr. Nicholas 
Biddle, with whom he was very intimate. Mr. William Miller and his 
family were connected with the first Presbyterian Church of Philadel- 
phia for many years. 
Edward Miller was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where 
he graduated, with Mathematical Honor, when seventeen years of age. 
Immediately afterwards he entered the Engineer Corps on the Lehigh 
Canal, of which Canvass White was the Chief Engineer. Mr. White had 
been one of the Principal Engineers of the Erie Canal of New York, and 
he was a gentleman of fine character and much experience. He had 
made pedestrian tours along the lines of the principal canals of Great 
Britain, and he was a man of sterling integrity and of great industry. 
When Edward Miller joined the corps, the Resident Engineer was Syl- 
vester Welch, a man of remarkable energy of character, who planned the 
Portage Railroad and directed its construction across the Allegheny 
Mountain, and who was afterwards the Chief Engineer of the State of 
Kentucky. With him was his brother, Ashbel Welch, since the Chief 
Engineer of various important works in New Jersey, and for several 
years, until the leasing of the lines, the President of the United Com- 
panies of that State. On the Lehigh at the same time were W. Milnor 
Roberts, now the Chief Engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad ; Solo- 
mon W. Roberts, now Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the North 
Pennsylvania Railroad; A. B. Warford, Geo. E. Hoffman, Benjamin 
Aycrigg, and several other well known engineers. It was a good school. 
Canvass White had been an officer of volunteers in the war of 1812, 
and had been badly wounded at Fort Erie. He was a strict disciplina- 
rian, and set a fine example of conscientious discharge of duty, even when 
suffering from ill health and much bodily weakness. Henry Clay, when 
recommending him for Engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, said; 
«No man is more competent, no man more capable ; and while your faith 
in his ability and fidelity increases, your friendship will grow into affec- 
tion.?? He died in 1834 of pulmonary disease, when 44 years of age, and 
is buried at Princeton, New Jersey, where he had resided as Chief En- 
gineer of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. 
