R. J. Meyler and His Contemporaries

This is one of the recollections written by Wallace A. McKay and published in The Pioneer-News. Follow the "Recollections" link above to find others of his writings.

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The Pioneer-News, February 24, 1933, pages 1-2

The first lawyer the writer knew intimately was Mr. R. J. Meyler, who lived in an attractive six-room cottage located on the lot of the present home of T. C. Carroll. The grandfather and father of the writer lived in a large two-story brick house on the opposite side of the alley, which was built out flush with the side-walk so as to leave all of the large yard in the North and East of the Home.

Mr. Meyler some years before had married Miss Josie Swearingen, the younger sister of Mrs. Richard H. Field and George W. Swearingen, the Louisville business man, and Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had three daughters, Katie, Lena and Virgie, who were then small children, but all very beautiful and attractive. Katie, the oldest, was an especial favorite of the writer, as she was of nearly all the other boys in town, and attended the local school when Prof. Sam M. Simmons was the teacher.

R. J. Meyler was a Yankee from Pennsylvania and came to Bullitt County a few years after the close of the Civil War. He was well educated and had lots of push and energy and shortly after his arrival in Bullitt County, applied for and secured the appointment of teacher of the Shepherdsville Public School. He made a very good teacher and taught for several terms, in the meantime studying law in the office of Hon. Richard H. Field. It was while he was a student in Mr. Field's office that he met and fell desperately in love with Josie Swearingen, the beautiful and attractive sister-in-law of his tutor. Young Meyler did not have everything his own way and soon found out that he had before him a sure-enough battle to win the fair daughter of the Southland Josie Swearingen. The predominant sentiment of Bullitt County was with the South during the Civil War, although quite a number of her sons enlisted in the Federal army, the father of the writer among a number of others. The Swearingen family, however, strongly sympathized with the South and were not very friendly or cordial with anyone from the North.

The father of Miss Josie, Col. W. W. Swearingen, was not especially enamored with the young Yankee from Pennsylvania, and the fair daughter and other suitors who had served in the Confederate Army. Meyler however was in earnest and pressed his suit with great vigor and persistency, finally winning out, after going through an ordeal which would have tried the Love of a less ardent and romantic lover.

Shortly after his marriage, Mr. Meyler became a Candidate for County Court Clerk and through the influence of his wife's family and their connections, was elected and served two terms. This office gave him an acquaintanceship throughout the County, which helped him very greatly in buildng up a law business after the expiration of his service as County Clerk.

He practiced law actively at Shepherdsville for a number of years and after the death of his brother-in-law, R. H. Field, succeeded to a considerable portion of his business. For a long time Meyler and Frank P. Straus were on the opposite sides of nearly every important case and had frequent disputes and some acrimonious spats and several fistfights. No serious damage resulted, however, from any of these fights, except disheveled clothes and a few scratches on the face and hands. They usually made up in a few days, and went along with each other in the same old way.

Meyler was a heavy-set, compact, dark complexioned man below the average in height. He was stockily built and quite strong and active for a man of his size. One day in the County Court Clerk's Office a couple of weeks after he had got the best of Frank P. Straus in a fist encounter, he and George W. Simmons, the father of Wax, Will and Mrs. Tom Cochran, had a personal difficulty which resulted in a real, old-fashioned boxing match of about three rounds. Meyler had taught boxing in an Eastern School before he came South and was quite a scientific boxer. Mr. E. W. Hall, who was then County Clerk, often declared that he was the self-chosen referee; that Meyler won the first round, the second was a draw, and that Simmons won the fight by a clean knock-out of his rival in the third round. Neither of the contestants were much the worse from the fight except one black eye and several scratches on the hands and face, in addition to the disheveled clothes and shortness of breath. The men around town joked with the combatants for several weeks after the fight and tried to get them to put on gloves and go down to the riverfront the following Saturday afternoon and have it all over again, but without success. In a few weeks afterwards they made up and became good friends again.

After practicing law in Bullitt County for about 20 years, Mr. Meyler and his brother-in-law, George W. Swearingen of Louisville, bought a large distillery near Bowling Green, in Warren County, to which place Mr. Meyler and his family removed. After removing to Southern Kentucky, Mr. Meyler became quite successful in business and his family became very prominent and popular in the social world, all his daughters marrying into fine families, his niece, Katie Field, marrying Mr. Lucian Graham, a member of a prominent Warren County family. Both Mr. and Mrs. Meyler died some years ago in their new home at Bowling Green, leaving behind a host of devoted friends and a number of descendants to mourn their loss.

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