Stranica 168 [168]
OCR
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 between 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 Confederate 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 Louisville. 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 [103 ]
