Robert Gillham
Robert Gillham (1854-1899)
1900 Obituary [1]
ROBERT GILLHAM, son of Mr. John Gillham, of Kansas City, Mo., U.S.A., was born in New York on the 25th September, 1854.
After being educated at a private school at Lodi, New Jersey, he studied engineering at the Classical and Mathematical Institute at Hackensack in the same State.
He practised on his own account at Hackensack from 1874 to 1878, when he proceeded to Kansas City. His first work there was to organize a company for the construction of a cable railway system through the city, for which he was not only responsible for the design and construction but secured the necessary funds. Mr. Gillham also designed and constructed the Kansas City Elevated Railway, as Chief Engineer and Vice-President of the Company, and the Eighth Street Railway Tunnel at Kansas City, which was completed in 1888. Among other works carried out by him may be mentioned the Omaha Cable Railway, the Denver City Cable Railway, the Sixteenth Street and Larrimer Street steel viaducts at Denver, the Montagu Street Cable Railway in Brooklyn, and the Cleveland City Cable Railway. He reported in 1888 on the West-End Street Railway system in Boston, Mass., and in 1890 on an extensive system of elevated railway for Philadelphia.
In 1893 Mr. Gillham was appointed Vice-President and General Manager of the Kansas City Elevated Railway, the consolidation of which with the Metropolitan Street Railway Company’s system in that city he carried through.
In July, 1895, he accepted the post of Chief Engineer to the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad Company, reserving the right to practise on his own account. On the completion of the construction of the line he was entrusted with the management of it, retaining also the position of Chief Engineer, and being responsible for the charge of the ship canal at Port Arthur, and all terminal and harbour improvements.
In addition to these duties, he held, since December, 1897, the posts of General Manager and Engineer of the Omaha and St. Louis Railway, the Omaha, Kansas City and Eastern Railway, and the Kansas City and Northern Railway.
He was also President of the Armourdale Foundry Company and of the Engineers Club of Kansas City, and a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of other scientific societies.
Mr. Gillham died at Kansas City on the 19th May, 1899, at the early age of 45. As an engineer he had achieved a sound reputation in the United States, and his honour and integrity as a man of business were equally well known.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 7th December, 1897.