Stranica 168 [168]
RICHMOND AND VICINITY
cherished this spot as a precious playground in their childhood, and
later in their youth, as a trysting place of many a happy friendship.
Who knows but that here was made many a pledge of troth be¬
tween happy lovers?
Tradition says nowhere was hospitality more abundant or more
cordially extended. In this home were entertained the Pendletons,
Taylors, Prices, Fontaines, and Dabneys, of Hanover County, and
later, the Todds, Garnetts, and Fauntleroys, of King and Queen.
These were the days of romance and beauty in Virginia,
when plantation life was happy, luxurious, and artistic. The
master, George William Pollard, was a physician and, also, a man
of literary ability. His war poetry was especially favored in the
days of the internecine strife, for Williamsville was, at one time,
the tenting-ground of the enemy. Generals Grant, Hooker, and
Meade took up headquarters in the house, ate in the dining-room,
and drove the family to the second floor until the Federal army left
the house and the farm.
One of the sons of Williamsville, Bernard Chiswell Pollard,
gave his life to the Confederacy, at Spotsylvania Courthouse. His
sister, Ellen, grieved so for her favorite brother, that she became
a fierce "rebel." On one occasion a Federal officer tried to get
from her some information concerning the movements of the Con¬
federate troops. She refused with such defiance that he pointed his
pistol at her to compel compliance with his order. She replied,
“I will die first.” This same officer returned next year on a
raid and, in passing her front door, lifted his hat. As Miss Pollard
did not return the salutation, he remarked, ‘‘You do not seem to
recognize me." She answered, “I have no acquaintances in the
Yankee army.” In 1866, this daughter of the Confederacy married
Rev. F. B. Converse, editor of The Christian Observer, of Louis¬
ville.
The present owner of Williamsville is Harry Todd Pollard, of
Louisville, but it is occupied and cultivated by George William
Pollard, the second, who has reared there a delightful family of
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