Sylvester Pollard's land grant

Susanne Waller works at the Trinity County Museum and I emailed her about our family. She was kind enough to look through their archive and found the original land grant! It looks like Sylvester Pollard first recieved the land grant on November 3rd, 1855, so now we know the Pollards moved there around that time. It was for 160 arcers and its 7 miles from Sumpter (I suspected it would be close to sumpter). It runs along Piny Creek, which is a little north of Sumpter Texas. Susanne was also nice enough to show send me some old maps that list his property. Its pretty close to Groveton Texas.

Now it appears that Sylvester sold the farm in 1857 to a John Fain. The odd thing is that he still lived in trinity county in 1860 because he is on the census there and he lived next to John Fain! I am thinking he might have sold the farm, but stayed on to work it. Oh one more thing thats interesting, John Fain was from Georgia. Could that be the connection that led to Hosea Pollard joining the Georgia Calvery? Well I am speculating now, so I'll stop. The bottom line though is we now have a fuller picture of the Pollard family. We know know that Sylvester Pollard moved to Trinity County sometime before 1855 where he homesteaded on some land. He then got a land grant in 1855, which he sold in 1857.

I also found why the Pollard's moved to Texas. Sylvester Pollard married Nancy Eaves in Louisiana. Serveral Eaves family members had moved to Trinity Texas and after the death of Nancy's fathor, the rest of the family moved. Thats probably why Sylvester Pollard first came to Texas. If you notice the location of the farm from the link below you will see how close it was to the Eaves farm. One other point of interest is the fact that Nancy's father was from Georgia. I have wondered why Frederick Hosea Pollard might have served in the Georgia Calvery. Well that might provide a family connection. I still haven't been able to find any enlistment records though.

Finally we know where the land is located at and maybe I'll make a trip out there soon. Its only about 3 and a half hours away.