Robert Milligan
Robert Milligan (1827-1876) of the Maua Railway
1877 Obituary [1]
MR. ROBERT MILLIGAN was born in the year 1827 at Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, and was educated at the Academy of that town.
He served a regular pupilage to Mr. John A. Brine, C.E., at Birkenhead, and was afterwards engaged for a rear in laying out highways in Scotland.
In 1851 he was appointed Second Engineer to the projected gasworks at Rio de Janeiro, and in connection with that enterprise prepared the surveys and sections of the city.
On their completion Mr. Milligan was employed by H.E. the "Commendador" Ireneo Evangelista da Souza (now Visconde de Maua) to survey and lay out the Maua railway (the first constructed in South America), through a most insalubrious district lying between the north end of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro and the base of the great “Serra” of Petropolis.
About the end of 1852 Mr. Milligan was sent by the Visconde de Maua to examine the province of San Paulo as to the feasibility of connecting the great coffee-producing districts of the interior of the province of San Paulo by railway communication with the port of Santos, when he laid out a line from the top of the Serra do Mar to Jundiahy, which scarcely differed from that ultimately adopted when the railway was constructed.
On his return to Rio in the following year Mr. Milligan was appointed Chief Engineer and Traffic Manager of the Maua railway, then opened for public traffic, and to the steam ferries connecting it with the City of Rio, which position he ably filled until 1868, when, after a most successful administration, he was obliged to return home in consequence of failing health. His services were early recognised by the Emperor of Brazil, at whose hands he received the decoration of the Imperial order of the Rose.
Mr. Milligan was elected a Member on the 4th of March, 1662, and he died on the 6th of July, 1876.