Washington Co., AR - Biographies - Thomas J. Pollard *********************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: The Goodspeed Publishing Co Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org *********************************************** Thomas J. Pollard, one of the old and eminently respected citizens of Washington County, Ark., was born near Lexington, Ky., October 27, 1805, and is the son of William Pollard, a native of Fredericksburg, Va., where he grew up and married Miss Frances Hampton, the mother of our subject. After marriage they went to Kentucky, where the father followed farming and stock raising, and was a man of influence. Mr. Pollard was a friend of Daniel Boone, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving at Yorktown, and was present when Cornwallis surrendered. He was an intimate friend and supporter of Henry Clay, and was a member of the Baptist Church. Of the eight children born to his marriage only two are now living: Dr. Wade Hampton Pollard and Thomas J. Pollard, both of Fayetteville. The mother of these children was born at Winchester, Va., and is the daughter of Charles Hampton, a cousin to the elder Wade Hampton, father of the present United States Senator, Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. Dr. Thomas Pollard commenced attending school when a lad, first at the common schools, and finished his literary education in Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky. He was a student all through his early manhood, and has so continued through his life. Of late years he sleeps only five hours per night, passing a goodly share of each night in "reading his journals." He read medicine for three years under Drs. Pindell and Satterwhite, and finished his private course under Prof. B. W. Dudley, at Lexington, Ky. He then attended three courses of lectures at Transylvania, from which institution he graduated as an M. D. in 1828. Dr. Pollard joined the Baptist Church near Lexington, Ky., in 1825, but in 1827 went with his church into the reformation known as the Christian Church. In March, 1828, he entered upon the practice of his profession at Nicholasville, Ky., where he [p.1003] remained about one year, and then went to Versailles in 1829. On April 14 of the same year he married Miss Mary Willis Stirman, who was born in Mercer County, Ky., and reared and educated at Nicholasville. Her father, Rev. William Stirman, was of a Virginia family, and a minister of the Christian Church. Her mother, Mrs. (Willis) Stirman, was of a Kentucky family, and her brothers, Edwin Winfield and Valentine Irwin, are in Texas, and are ministers in the Christian Church. Winfield Stirman served several terms in the Texas Legislature. From April. 1831, to March, 1839, Dr. Pollard practiced his profession in Palmyra, Mo., and in the last named year he settled at Fayetteville, Ark., and has practiced here ever since. He has been practicing for sixty years, and although now in his eighty-fourth year he can do about as much professional work as he ever could. He was the first president of the Washington County Medical Association, and assisted in organizing it. He is president of the District Medical Society of Northwest Arkansas, embracing seven or eight counties, and has been vice-president of the Arkansas State Medical Society. He has given special study to surgery, and has performed successfully most of the capital operations, and has never once failed in them. For a time, during the war, he was post surgeon at Fayetteville, and served as a surgeon in the Confederate army. He was in the battles of Oak Hills, Elk Horn, Fayetteville and Poison Springs. His service was irregular; when needed he would assist all he could. He has followed no business except his profession, has never engaged in any speculation nor held office of any kind. He became a Master and Royal Arch Mason at Palmyra, Mo., and was chairman of the committees that built two Masonic halls at Fayetteville. Dr. Pollard has always been ready to minister to the wants of his fellow man, and has been instrumental in raising the morals of the town to a high standard. On April 14, 1879, Dr. and Mrs. Pollard celebrated their golden wedding at their residence in Fayetteville, on which occasion about 400 of their friends and relatives from several States were present. By his marriage Dr. Pollard became the father of four children; Sarah Frances, who was born in Versailles, Ky., March 6, 1831, and who is a graduate of Johnson's Female Institute, at Georgetown, Ky., now the wife of Dr. Davis Polson, of Fayetteville. Mrs. Polson's daughter, Emma, by her first marriage with William R. Quarles, is now the wife of Richard M. Darnall, a lawyer and planter in Lake County, Tenn., and is the mother of three children: Jefferson Pollard, Mattie and Richard M. Darnall. Thomas William Pollard was born in Palmyra, Mo., March 3, 1853, and was educated in Arkansas College under President Robert Graham. He married Miss Elizabeth Cooper at Glasgow, Mo., and by her has three children: Joel H., an editor by profession; Stirman, in railway work, and Mary Rebecca, who is attending studies at the A. I. U. John Lilbourn, the third child born to Dr. Pollard, is a native of Palmyra, Mo., born in July, 1835, and educated at the Arkansas College (now deceased). Anna Eliza, the fourth living child of Dr. Pollard, was born in Fayetteville, was educated at Spring-field, Mo., and is now the wife of John Vaughn, a hardware merchant at Fort Smith. She has three children: Mary Edith, Fannie Lucy and Millie Haley. Dr. Pollard is a persistent worker, is somewhat excitable, and comes to rapid conclusions, but is orderly and methodical in business, although too generous in going security to be called a successful financier. The Doctor was reared by a father whose morality could never be questioned, and Dr. Pollard has followed in his footsteps. He has never drank whisky, never chewed tobacco, never gambled, and has never let a man pay a dime for him in his life. He has been generous, and has lost financially by his generosity. As a reward for his temperate life the Doctor is well preserved, has good health, is cheerful, and most of all he has the unbounded respect of his fellow citizens. Mrs. Pollard, like her husband, was a member of the Christian Church, and passed away an honored life here, full in the faith of that society, and carrying with her a very cordial respect; she was esteemed by all who knew her for her grand wifely and material worth, and her very excellent Christian spirit, which she at all times maintained. She was well educated, and a woman of decision, but never formed opinions without evidence, and when her opinion was once formed was very seldom changed. She was of good conversational powers, had energy of character, was charitable to the poor, and her door was always open to the needy, notably so during the war. The occasion of their golden wedding was a grand tribute to their worth from all classes and creeds of good people, something of which this venerable couple, their children and grandchildren may well be proud.