More on Dr. Amos Pollard


on Friday, February, 10 2017 @ 12:40:00 pm (532 words)
In Brazoria County history [ 178622 views ]

Elsewhere in this blog, my article "The Texas Residency of Doctor Amos Pollard" appears. It was written initially for a college communications course I took in order to receive teacher certification and shortly thereafter was published in The Alamo Journal, the official publication of the Alamo Society, in the issue of February 1995 (#95).  The main objective of the article was to disprove the erroneous assertion that in Texas Dr. Pollard was a resident of Gonzales, Texas.  He was not, and my article lists and discusses a wealth of reliable sources which prove that Dr. Pollard resided in or very near Columbia (present-day West Columbia), Texas. To this list of proofs can now be added, thanks to Michael Bailey, curator of the Brazoria County Historical Museum, Angleton, Texas, a letter by Dr. Pollard addressed "Columbia, (Texas, Mexico)," and dated "Feb. 15th, 1835."

 

In my article concerning Pollard's residency in Texas, I mention a notation that abolitionist Benjamin Lundy made in his journal on 30 August 1834 while at Bexar, Texas: "I met today Dr. Amos Pollard, lately of New York but now of Columbia, Texas. He is a decided friend of our cause."  Dr. Pollard's letter to William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the weekly abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, is shown here. It provides further sound evidence that Pollard was a resident of the Municipality of Columbia. It has long been known that he had practiced medicine in New York, but another biographical gem provided by the letter is that he had also practiced medicine in Boston.

 

 
 
[Transcription]
 
                              COLUMBIA, (Texas, Mexico,)
                              Feb. 15th, 1835.
 
DEAR SIR:---Although I have not a personal acquaintance with you, yet being animated with similar feelings, I take the liberty of thus addressing you. Having been in this country about eighteen months, and explored much of it, and being, as it were, identified with it myself, I am anxious to do what can possibly be done to settle it with the friends of freedom from the free United States. Texas is now settling extremely fast, mostly from the Western and Southern States, because it is more known in those States; but let the people of the Northern and Eastern States only have correct information concerning this interesting, rich, and prospectively great country, and they will pour in here in torrents, leaving the slave-holders shortly in a minority. The Constitution of Mexico precludes slavery, yet it is evaded by having the blacks indentured for ninety-nine years, &c. All the hilly parts are very healthy for northern people, and Texas presents more pecuniary inducements to emigrants, than perhaps any other country on the globe. The richest cotton and sugar lands are now cheap. We are here the most free people on earth---the revolutions of Mexico disturb us not in the least---we enjoy perfect liberty of conscience, and pay no taxes. I am very anxious to see an end put to slavery in all parts of the world, and especially that it may be prevented from taking deep root in Texas. I am a native of Massachusetts, and have practised my profession in Boston and New-York.
I am, your obedient servant,
AMOS POLLARD, M. D.
 
Illustrations:
(Top) Alamo martyr Amos Pollard, M. D.
(Bottom) Pollard's letter in The Liberator, May 16, 1835
 
 

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