Marriage
Records Pulaski Co, ARK Book 7 Page 581
5-nov-1883
Isaac
G. Pollard age 31
Elizabeth
Dillahay age 16
Elizabeth
was under age. Her mother Mrs Francis Dillahay's consent to the marriage was
included in the record.
In
a publication called Pulaski County Historical Review, Vol 44 Num 2
Published Summer 1996, was an artical entitled Interracial Marriages and
Cohabitation in Pulaski Co, ARK 1870-1900, by Kelley Metheny. On page 35-36
while discussing interracial marriages, the following passage appeared.
Little
Rock claimed center stage for another scandal that highlighted views and
concerns of both races. The Reverand Isaac G. Pollard a prominent minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wed a sixteen year old mullato girl in
November 1883. After the ceremony they left for Memphis, and authorities did
not discover until later that the girl’s mother and Justice Chamberlin,
who performed the ceremony in ignorance of the girls race, expressed
opposition to the union. In contrast a black gentleman who knew the couple
approved of the marriage and hoped it would set a precedent for personal
freedom when choosing a spouse or even a friend.
To deny there were outbreaks of violence against mixed couples elsewhere in the state is to ignore the facts, but they were not representative of the entire society and occurred less frequently than many suppose. (Taken from the Arkansas Gazette 6-nov-1883 and 7-nov-1883, and Miscegenation file, Tom Dillard).
