California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 HON. MORTON SMITH SAYRE.� The judge of the superior court o{ Lake county, who is likewise president of the Bank of Lake and vice-pres- ident of the Clear Lake Railroad Company, as well as a large stockholder in the Northern California Telephone Company, was born at Reedtown, Seneca county, Ohio, December 23, 1847, and is a son of John B. and Mary A. (Hanks) Sayre. The father, a native of Benton Center, Yates county, N. Y., married Miss Hanks in Steuben county, that state, and took his young wife to the then frontier of Ohio, where he improved a farm. Four children were born on the Ohio homestead and about 1853 the family returned to York state, where the four youngest children were born. All but one of the eight lived to maturity, namely: Evaline, who died at the age of eighteen years; Morton Smith, the well-known jurist of Lake county; Rozilla G., the widow of Theodore Colgrove and a resident of Los Angeles; Grattan W., a railroad man connected with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, with headquar- ters in Chicago; George H., a gold miner now at Tonopah, Nev. ; Dwight O., u stock dealer living in Missouri ; and Angle F., wife of V. S. Johnson, of South Dakota. Between the years of six and ten Judge Sayre lived on a farm in Steuben county, N. Y., and attended the public school in that vicinity. About 1857 his father was injured so seriously that he was left an invalid' and, no longer able to engage in farming, he removed to Hammondsport, Steuben county, where in an effort to regain his health the savings of years of arduous labor were expended. However, the son was sent to the common schools and Hammondsport Academy. While a student in the academy he relinquished school work to enlist in the Union army. Early in 1864, when but sixteen years of age, he became a private in Company E, One Hundred and Sixty- first New York Infantry. Assigned first to the department of the Gulf under General Banks and later to an engineering brigade on the lower Mississippi under Colonel Bailey, he was next transferred to the Thirteenth Army Corps under General Canby and marched from Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile bay to Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, where he took part in the memorable .siege, thence crossed the bay to Mobile. In November, 1865. when still less than eighteen, he was mustered out at Tallahassee, Fla.. and honorably dis- charged. During his absence in the army his parents had moved to Almond, Allegany county, and he joined them there, attending the local academy for three winters and earning a livelihood by day tasks in the summer months. He also taught at Bishopville, N. Y., for one winter. When twenty-one he entered Alfred University, but stopped the next winter to teach school. Through all of this period he was earning his own way and paying for his education. Attracted to Iowa by its opportunities, Mr. Sayre lived at Denison from the spring of 1870 until 1880. In 1872 he married at Almond, N. Y., Miss Delia Genung, of Almond, that state, who died in 1877, leaving one child, Burt G., now in the hardware business at Lakeport. Beginning in a bank at Denison as clerk, Mr. Sayre rose to be assistant cashier as well as attor- ney for the institution. In his leisure hours he had read law with Judge M. H. Wygant, of Denison, and about 1876 he was admitted to the bar at Council Bluffs, not, however, practicing in that state except in connection with the bank's law affairs. A serious throat trouble caused him to resign his bank position and seek a change of climate in California, where he spent the years 1880-85 in business in San Francisco. Being not in the least benefited there, he came to Middletown, Lake county, in 1885, and immediately his health began to improve, which caused him to become a permanent resident of the county. Elected county clerk in 1886, he moved to Lakeport during Decem- ber of that year. After two years as clerk and two years as district attorney, from January, 1891, to January, 1895, he engaged in law practice with ex- Judge R. J. Hudson, under the firm title of Hudson & Sayre. In 1894 he was again chosen district attorney and re-elected in 1898, serving until January 1, 1903. At the expiration of the last term he formed a law partnership with H. V. Keeling under the name of Sayre & Keeling. On the death of Hon. R. W. Crump he was appointed by Governor George C. Pardee to fill the vacancy as judge of the superior court. In 1904 he was elected to the same office and four years later was again chosen as his own successor. His decisions in the court are governed by a wide knowl- edge of the law and a uniform impartiality of temperament and have won for him the respect of the higher courts, as well as the admiration of local people and a reputation for high legal attainments and wise decisions. With his wife, who prior to their marriage on New Year's day of 1907, was Mrs. Maude M. Swayze of Lakeport, he has an enviable social standing in circles where culture and breadth of mental vision, supplementing honorable prin- ciples, are the open sesame. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. Always interested in Grand Army work, he has been the most efficient and popular promoter of its interests and has served as commander of Gaylord Post at Upper Lake. At this writing he is inspector of the Nineteenth Ma- sonic district. He was made a Mason at Denison, Iowa, and afterward took the Royal Arch degrees at Dunlap. With his wife he has co-operated in the work of the Eastern Star and the Rebekahs, while he is now past noble grand of Lakeport Lodge No. 351, I. O. O. F. Besides his interests in the bank and the railroad and his financial connection with other local enterprises, he is the owner of town property at Lakeport and also unimproved country hold- ings as well as two improved farms in Lake county, all of his interests being concentrated in the county to whose permanent upbuilding he has been a constant contributor.