The Pollard Family

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Palo Pinto Co., TXGenWeb
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1857 Star News Centennial Edition 1957
Section 5: Story on page 6

submitted by Bob Jessup


R. B. Pollard Built First Gin Hopkins County


R. B. Pollard, a native of Georgia, came to Texas in 1850, settling for a time in Hopkins County where he engaged in cattle raising and built the first cotton gin in that county.  He accumulated considerable wealth and owned a good many slaves.

Following his settlement on the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County, he took part in defense of the citizens from Indians and took part with General Ross in the fight with the Comanche on Pease River in 1858.  He was a friend of the family of Cynthia Ann Parker.  Pollard died in 1866 and his wife, Avilene Barton Pollard, died in 1882, and both are buried at Millsap.

John B. Pollard, son of the R. B. Pollards, was born in Morgan County, Georgia in 1831, and attended school in a log school house in Georgiaville, Mississippi.  By the time he was 18, he was acting as overseer for his father but went to Sevier County, Arkansas, and worked until he had earned $300 then came to Texas, living from 1849 until 1855 in Hopkins County.  There he married Miss Josephine Dean, a native of Red River County, and they moved to Parker County, spending a year there before moving into Palo Pinto County.  By that time he had 500 head of cattle and they were driven to New Orleans to market, sometimes taking as many as 1300 head on a trip.  During the Civil War he, like many others, lost heavily and at one time Indian raids became so common that he moved his family to Weatherford.  Descendants remember hearing him speak of trading a slave for $1,200 worth of cattle.

The couple had 10 children.  He was a lifelong Democrat and a member of the Baptist Church and the IOOF Lodge.


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