Leo Meysing owns property in two Marion Counties
Staff writer
Leo Meysing, 79, of Portland, Ore., has been practicing law for more than 55 years and specializes in estate planning. He is a member emeritus of the Estate Planning Council of Portland.
He grew up on a farm southwest of Pilsen. He has two older brothers, Bernhardt and Paul, who continue to live in the Pilsen area. A sister, Patsy Waner, lives in Oklahoma.
The Meysing farm was near the Enos Kapaun farm. Leo Meysing said he regarded Emil Kapaun as a big brother. The families harvested wheat together.
Meysing attended Clark Country School, Dist. 38, built in 1873 in Clark Township at the intersection of present-day Old Mill and 260th roads. His father, Joseph A. Meysing, also attended Clark School, graduating from eighth grade.
The Meysing farmstead was a quarter of a mile from the school. The late Louise (Schwartzman) Bezdek taught at Clark School for several years and boarded with the Meysings some of the time.
Leo Meysing graduated in 1942. A framed photograph of the school has hung in the conference room of his Portland law office since 1959.
The school closed in 1953.
Meysing got his secondary education at Pilsen and a parochial school in Missouri.
He graduated from the University of Kansas Law School in 1953 and became a member of the Kansas State Bar. He has a master’s degree in taxation from New York University Graduate Law School in Manhattan. He has been a member of the Oregon State Bar since 1957.
“I often tell my clients I received my most relevant education in Clark School,” Meysing said. “All eight grades were taught in one room by one teacher. Therefore, I heard the eighth grade classes taught seven times before I reached that lofty position. Not only that, I had a cumulative review of all the earlier classes.”
Meysing has not abandoned his roots. He owns three parcels of ground in Marion County, including the 160-acre home place. A renter occupies the farmhouse. A nephew farms the land.
Meysing also owns land in Oregon. The 260 acres happens to be located fittingly in Marion County. Located along a river, the land is leased to a farmer. Meysing often spends time at his country home on the property. The land produces wheat and fruit.
The law and the land are inexorably linked together.
The Clark school building still stands but becomes more weather beaten with every passing day. Like so many of the other original 124 country schools in the county, it soon will disappear from view.
However, like Meysing, the students who entered its doors strive to keep it alive by passing on their memories of it to future generations.