My family, the Douglas, Evans and Hesterly families, all lived in Sayre beginning around 1890 and I can tell you what I know about the town. One of the earliest settlers was Dr. Isaac Hawkins who built the old two story house in Sayre before the Civil War. Some say the house was used as a stage coach stop in the 1870's. It's my understanding the stage ran from Camden to Tate's Bluff to Red Hill and Sayre and then on to Prescott because that was the nearest railroad station to Camden from about 1876 to around 1882. Dr. Hawkins is buried to the east of the site of the old house, which was torn down in 1990, behind the old Spurlock house. The railroad came to Sayre around 1882 or so. Chidester seemed to become a town along the line first, and then around 1886 Sayre was established. The origin of the name is a mystery. I once asked my grandmother, Martha Elizabeth Evans Hesterly, who was born in Sayre in 1889, and lived there all of her life, how Sayre got its name and she didn't know. I once thought it was named for someone who was connected to the St. Louis and Iron Mountain RR, but I recently saw a map of the area around 1900, and it showed a spur railroad track running west from Sayre towards the crossroads area of Reader on the Nevada Ouachita County line, and it was identified as belonging to the Sayre Lumber Company. It's possible some investor from up north came down and started a lumber company in Sayre and named it after himself. This is just a guess. My Great Great Grandfather, James McEwing Douglas, was postmaster in Sayre for around 1894. He also was mayor for awhile. My Great Grandfather, Samuel Hamilton Summers Hesterly, postmaster in Sayre around 1915. The 1900 Census shows Sayre had quickly grown into a town of around 200 people, due to the employment at the Sayre Lumber Mill, which was located west of the Railroad Station. My mother said quite a few African Americans worked at the Mill and the area they lived in was called "Wage Town". I have a photograph of the store building in Sayre, taken around 1905. One part of the old wooden building with a covered porch was a grocery store, another part was the post office, and the east side of the building had a second story which was used as a Masonic Hall. Sayre had several churches, as well as the school, which my mother attended, as well as my Aunt. It taught grades 1 through 8. They attended in the 1920's. To go on to High School they had to go on to either Camden or Magnolia. The school was located on Campbell Hill Road, south of the Railroad Depot, about a half a mile. The Railroad Depot was on the south side of the tracks, and the store and post office building was on the north side of the tracks, just west of where Sayre Drive crosses where the Railroad tracks were. The Union Pacific Railroad tore up the tracks just recently, in 1999 or 2000. According to what I heard a man named Lee Reader came to Sayre and tried to get the town named after him. I don't know how he succeeded but the post office records do show that the name of the town switched back and forth between Sayre and Reader for a few years in the 1890's and early 1900's. Eventually the Reader Lumber Mill was established a mile northwest of Sayre, and that became the town of Reader. Sayre remained Sayre from that point on, and still had the Railroad Depot. My mother said the station at Reader was just a platform for years, no building. When the mill in Sayre closed, the town began to die as people moved away to find employment. The Mill in Reader was going strong and people moved there. That's how Reader came to grow larger than Sayre. The Mill eventually became owned by the Johnson Lumber Company, and later the Mansfield Lumber Company. They started the Reader Railroad which ran southwest from Reader, and hooked up with where the Sayre Lumber Company RR once ran at a place called Sayre Junction, and then continued southwest into Nevada County. Around 1929 or so the Mill in Reader closed and the Mansfield Lumber Company built a new mill down in Zwolle, LA. I met some people who moved from Reader to Zwolle so they wouldn't lose their jobs. In the 1940's the Railroad physically moved the Sayre Depot to Reader, one mile down the tracks, because Sayre's population had dropped to just a few families. In the 1970's the old Sayre Depot, which became the Reader Depot, was moved to Fair Park in Hope, AR. It is still there today, and is part of the Hope Watermelon Festival in August. My family always pronounced Sayre, Say - Ree. Once we visited Sayre, Pennsylvania, which is up near the New York State line around Elmira. My mother was amused that they pronounced the town Say-Er. I don't know if there is a connection how Sayre, OK and how Sayre, AR were named. We still own my grandfather's old home in Sayre, and still remember how my family came from Sayre, even though it has pretty much faded off the map. I hope this information helps.