Biography:

Army officer, engineer. Born– Oct. 12, 1860, in Gadsden, Ala. Parents– William Joshua and Marietta (Ward) Sibert. Married– Mary Margaret Cummings in Sept. 1887. Children– Eight. Married– Juliet Roberts in June 1917. Married– Evelyn Clyne Bairnsfather on June 8, 1922. Education– attended University of Alabama, 1878-1880; U.S. Military Academy, B.S. Served in U.S. Army Engineers 1884-1920; worked on rivers in Kentucky; on construction of ship channel connecting Great Lakes; instructor in Civil Engineering School of Application; chief for Eighth Army; chief engineer and general manager of Manila and Dagupan Railroad; in charge of Louisville and Pittsburgh River District; member of Isthmian Canal Commission at Gatun Locks for Panama Canal; chairman of flood prevention for China’s Huan River; first U.S. division of troops in France, 1917; commanded Southeastern Department of Charleston; organized and directed U.S. Army’s Chemical Warfare Service; after retirement in 1920 chairman and chief engineer for Alabama State Docks Commission; chairman, board of engineers and geologists in 1928 to report on feasibility of Boulder Dam; president American Association of Port Authorities 1919-1930.

Source:

Who Was Who in America, Vol. 1; National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 35.

Joint_Publication(s):

The Construction of the Panama Canal. New York; D. Appleton, 1915.

Report of Board of Engineers on the Huan River Conservancy Project in the Provinces of Kiangsiu and Anhui, China. Washington, D.C.; American National Red Cross, 1914.