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John L. Mayer
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JOHN L. MAYER, Esq., a distinguished lawyer of the York County Bar, was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Virginia, on August 5, 1810, and died at his home in York, Pennsylvania, August 17, 1874. He was a son of Rev. Lewis Mayer, D. D., and Catharine Mayer. The founder of the Pennsylvania branch of the Mayer family was Christopher Bartholomew Mayer, who was born at Carlsruhe, Germany, in November, 1702, and came to this country fifty years later. He was the grandfather of Rev. Lewis Mayer, D. D., a prominent and scholarly clergyman of the Reformed church. After his arrival in this country Christopher B. Mayer tarried a short time, with his wife and four children at Annapolis, Maryland, but shortly subsequent went to Monocacy Station, now Frederictown, in the western part of the province. It is supposed that it was his design to acquire a large tract of land and settle his family in that fertile region, but before he could accomplish this purpose death overtook him six months after his arrival and he was buried in the Gottes Oken cemetery of the Lutheran church at Frederictown, Maryland, on November 21, 1752. After their father's death the family gradually diffused, some settling in Pennsylvania and others remaining in Maryland and Virginia. George Ludwig Mayer, the oldest son and the father of Rev. Dr. Lewis Mayer quitted Frederictown for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which henceforth became the seat of his ministerial activity, and where many of his descendants still live. Christian Mayer, second, founder of the Baltimore branch of the family was born at Ulm in 1763 and came to America in 1784, and settled in Baltimore where he passed the remainder of his life and died. John L. Mayer, after a thorough preparation entered Yale College in 1829 and was graduated in 1831. Subsequently he studied law with John Evans, Esq., at York, and was admitted to the Bar of York County, February 18, 1834, and pursued diligently the practice of his profession in York and adjoining counties for a period of forty years. He was a co-partner of his preceptor, John Evans, Esq., for many years, and the legal firm of Evans & Mayer possessed the largest clientage and tried the major portion of the cases in the courts of York County during the partnership. After its dissolution Mr. Mayer continued to hold a very large and lucrative practice. In politics he was nominally a Whig, very rarely took part in its activities and never held office. Mr. Mayer was a man of very great erudition in his profession and an omnivorous reader of legal and judicial literature. In the extent and character of his legal knowledge he had no superior at the Bar. His arguments were close and exhaustive, his citation of authorities was voluminous; but it seemed necessary for him thus to cite them because of that keen analytical power he possessed of resolving cases into principles, and then leading the mind to the particular point by a line of thought that distinguished his case from all apparent analogies. He was moreover a scholar in the true sense of that word; an indefatigable student in various branches of learning outside of his profession and he could adorn his argument with apt quotations and illustrations drawn from a multitude of sources. He possessed, too, a good knowledge of business, a practical mind, and by close attention and prudence amassed a very considerable competency which descended to his children in addition to the heritage of a distinguished name. On December 16, 1858, Mr. Mayer was joined in marriage with Julia Lyne, which resulted in an issue of seven children, only three of whom are living.
