BIOS: Richard T. POLLARD, M.D., , Garrett, Somerset County, PA

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History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Bedford County by E. 
Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v.3, Pub. The Lewis 
Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, ppg. 201-203

Richard T. POLLARD, M.D.

The career of Dr. Pollard, of Garrett, is a striking instance of the possibility 
for a young man of energy, perseverance and good character to rise superior to 
his circumstances and environment and to make for himself an honored position in 
any community.
Richard T. Pollard is descended from a family of mine workers of Cornwall, 
England.  His father, Thomas Pollard, was a tin dresser at the Cornwall tin 
mines.  He was a fairly well educated man and a member of the Primitive 
Methodist church.  He and his wife, Elizabeth Pollard, were the parents of six 
children, all of whom attained years of maturity, and three of whom came to 
America: William, deceased; Elizabeth Jane, deceased, and Richard T., whose name 
heads this sketch.  Thomas Pollard died in England, 1886.
Richard T. Pollard was born at Chacewater, Cornwall, England, November 24, 1848. 
He had none of the advantages of early education, but from youth worked in the 
tin and copper mines of his native country.  He came to America at the age of 
twenty, and at that time did not know his multiplication table and was equally 
backward in all other branches.  He first went to Hibernia, Morris county, New 
Jersey, where he was employed in the mines until 1871, when he came to Somerset, 
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and entred the employ of William H. Welfley, the 
author of this history.  He assisted him in his photographic work for about one 
year, and for several years thereafter mined and farmed in the southern part of 
the county.  In 1889 he began the study of medicine at the Baltimore Medical 
College.  In the years since 1871, when he began his studies under L. A. Smith, 
editor of the 'Meyersdale Commercial,' he had studied and earnestly applied 
himself at all possible times to improve his mind.  He denied himself all 
pleasures and luxuries in order to further the object he had in view, namely, 
the securing of an education.  He spent two years in Baltimore Medical college, 
graduating therefrom in 1891.  He then entered Western University of 
Pennsylvania, completing his course there in 1893 and obtaining his diploma as a 
regular practitioner of the allopathic or old school of medicine.
Dr. Pollard began practicing his profession at Hagerstown, Maryland, where he 
remained two years.  He then located in Garrett, Pennsylvania, where he has 
practiced very successfully for the past thirteen years, and has proved the 
wisdom of his choice of a profession.  He is a member of the state and county 
medical societies, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Surgeons' Association, and is 
local surgeon for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at Garrett.  He is an elder 
of the German Baptist Brethren church and frequently fills the pulpits of that 
denomination.  He belongs to the Berlin congregation.  In politics he is a 
Republican and has served his borough as councilman and school director.
Dr. Pollard married, May 2, 1879, Mrs. Hannah Kimmel, widow of Peter Kimmel, of 
Elderton, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania.  She is a daughter of Joseph and 
Catherine Shoemaker.  By her first marriage there was one child, Ida, wife of 
William H. Miller, of Garrett.  The children of Dr. and Mrs. Pollard are: Thomas 
S., a miner, married Ida Walter, and their children are Richard, William and 
Goldie.  Lee W., a druggist of Garrett, married Rosa McQuaide, and they have one 
child, Richard E. Pollard.  Dr. Pollard has a well appointed home in Garrett, 
where he also has his office, and here he is enjoying the comforts and pleasures 
made possible by his earlier years of self--denial and earnest effort.