Madera County Biographies

A. L. SAYRE

Transcribed by Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

A. L. SAYRE, a rancher one mile southeast of Madera, was born in New York city 
in 1860. His father, A. L. Sayre, was prominently connected with the importing 
and jobbing of foreign fruits. He was one of the oldest fruit merchants in New 
York city, having established his business in 1844. On account of failing health 
he retired from business in 1874, and on a visit to California purchased through 
his friend, W. S. Chapman, the ranch as above located, containing 804 acres. The 
ranch was devoted entirely to grain up to 1881, when he planted twenty acres in 
vines and has since increased the amount to 225 acres, and the vines are now in 
full bearing. Mr. Sayre divided his life between California and his New York 
home and died on his ranch in 1887. 
     Young Sayre was educated in New York, taking a university course. He then 
entered commercial life, at the age of eighteen years, in the wholesale grocery 
establishment of F. H. Leggett & Co., with whom he remained two and a half 
years. He was then employed by Carpenter, Cornell & Co. as general buyer, and 
remained with the firm five years. Upon the death of his father, Mr. Sayre 
retired from commercial life and came to Madera to superintend and manage his 
ranch interests, and though having been brought up in the busy city of New York, 
he finds both pleasure and profit in his ranch life, and makes frequent visits 
to New York, where his mother and family still reside. Mr. Sayre carries on a 
general ranch business, with 225 acres in vines, 160 in alfalfa, and the 
remainder in grain. He also keeps 175 head of cattle and twenty-five head of 
horses for ranch purposes. Though a bachelor, Mr. Sayre is very pleasantly 
situated, in the full enjoyment of his independent life, and deeply interested 
in the prosperity of his ranch interests. He is a member of the Manhattan 
Athletic Club of New York city. 
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, p.490-491