Robert Pollock was born around 1819 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served as a sergeant in the 1^st Virginia Infantry during the Mexican-American War, eventually earning a promotion to 1s lieutenant. He remained in California after the war, and by 1860, he was working as a carpenter in San Francisco, California.

 

He joined the Union army during the Civil War, receiving a commission as a major in the 1^st California Infantry on August 21, 1861. He was transferred to the 3^rd California Infantry on September 5, and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 12. “Much to his disappointment,” one writer later noted, “his regiment was kept on the Pacific Coast fighting Indians.” He was eventually promoted to colonel.

 

Pollock remained in the United States army after the war, serving as a 1^st lieutenant in the 21^st U.S. Infantry. He married a woman named Sarah Jane, and they had at least nine children Izatus, born around 1862; Ella, born around 1863; John, born around 1865; Amelia, born around 1867; Josephine, born around 1869; Flora, born around 1872; William, born around 1874; Lillie, born around 1876; and Charles, born around 1879.

 

In 1870, he and his family were living in Camp Goodwin in the Arizona Territory, and he owned $1,000 of real estate and $1,200 of personal property. He was promoted to captain in 1873, and he spent the next decade fighting in the Indian Wars. He retired in 1883 and settled in Portland, Oregon. He died of “congestion of the lungs, heart failure, and exhaustion” near Cornelius, Oregon, on February 24, 1901.

 

Image: Robert Pollock (courtesy J. Williard Marriott Digital Library, University of Utah)

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