Henry Dodge Ayre, the son of George S. and Mary Ann Ayre, was born in Upperville (Fauquier County), Virginia in 1856. He graduated from Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech) with a degree in agriculture and mechanics in 1876. Ayre married Julia Peck in Salem, Virginia in 1879. The 1880 census describes Henry D. Ayre as a 24-year-old farmer, living in Loudoun County, Virginia with 24-year-old wife Julia. In 1894, Ayre was granted U.S. patent number 512,573 on a device for marking corn rows. By 1910, he was living in Cleveland, Tennessee and engaged in farming and the lumber business. Henry Ayre died on October 3, 1939.

Clayton Emmett Ayre, son of Henry and Julia Peck Ayre, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia on August 5, 1880. He attended Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (now Virginia Tech) in 1898/1899 and 1899/1900. A 1935 alumni directory lists him as a special student, graduating in 1902. By 1905, Ayre was living in Cleveland, Tennessee, and the 1910 census shows him living in the home of his parents and working in the lumber business. Also in the household was the younger Ayres' wife, Matilda Elizabeth Chappelear Ayre (1878-1962), whom he had married in Salem, Virginia in 1907. The couple continued to live with Ayre's parents through 1920, with their only child, Nanny Josephine Ayre (born in 1910). By 1929, Ayre was living in Guild, Tennessee, and employed as construction superintendent for the Tennessee River Electric Power Company. He later worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Following retirement, Ayre worked on the family farm at Cleveland, Tennessee. He died there on November 18, 1967.

Read more about Clayton Ayre in the 50th anniversary history of the Class of 1902, available online at the Virginia Tech History website.