Lejos de odiarlo o de temerle

Lejos de odiarlo o de temerle
 

Hi,

Sin embargo, nuestros padres (Dios los tenga en su santa Gloria),
lejos de odiarlo o de temerle, complacíanse aún en ponderar sus
descomunales hazañas, ...

Not that I were completely ignorant about lo/le, but as a student I'm still frustrated. Odiar and temer look like just two grammatically equivalent verbs to me. How am I supposed to internalize the difference?

I can just memorize the case (with the articles in English it turned out to be the soundest approach :D ); is there a better way?

You are right: "odiar" and "temer" are both transitive verbs, so the pronoun is "lo" in both cases.
As you can see, even native speakers are confused about which pronoun one should use, and if I have to give an explanation, I think it depends on what the regional speakers find more euphonic.

My only advice to learners is that they stick to the transitive/intransitive thing to speak/write, but stay aware that there are other ways to use these pronouns, depending on regions and style. :)

This is supposed to be refined Castellano, XIX century :D ...

XIX century Spanish, that's what it sounds like. :)
Keep in mind that some regional usages consider correct some forms of "leísmo", because that's how people normally speak. Grammar and proper usage are not always the same. :)
That's why I recommend to learn the rule and then adopt the usage from the region you like the most, when you are able to know when to mix and when not. ;)