Thomas Paschall Roberts (April 21, 1843 – February 25, 1924) was a civil engineer and surveyor who worked as the chief engineer of the Monongahela Navigation Company and named Black Eagle Falls and Rainbow Falls during his survey of the Missouri River.
[2] In 1863, he left Pennsylvania State College to join his father in the construction of the Don Pedro Railroad in Brazil.
He returned to the United States and was named principal assistant engineer under his father for work on improving the Ohio River.
[3] He then became the United States assistant engineer and retained “local charge of the Monongahela River improvements.”[4] When Roberts returned to the United States after his work in Brazil, he began work on surveying land for a planned railroad in Pennsylvania[1] that was meant to be financed by English capitalists.
"[1] In 1872, Roberts and a group of men were sponsored by the United States government to conduct a survey of the Missouri River.
[4] The couple had seven children: Eleanor Christy, Annie Gibson, Juliette Paschall, Laura Milnor, Thomas P. Junior, J. Milor, and Mary Brunot.
In addition, he assisted in organizing the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Academy of Science and Arts.