Sayre, Robert H. (Robert Heysham), 1824-1907

Civil engineer and railroad executive.

Robert Heysham Sayre was born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 1824, and died in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on January 5, 1907. His father, William H. Sayre, brought the family to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania in 1829, where he became weighmaster for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. Like many company officials, he secured for his son an apprenticeship in the company's engineer corps, starting in 1840 when Robert joined an LC&N team in the enlargement of the adjoining Morris Canal. From 1842 to 1852, he worked primarily on the expansion of the LC&N's network of coal railroads between Mauch Chunk and the Panther Creek Valley, as well as their tributary coal mines.

...