 He grew up in Surry, New Hampshire, and in 1825 he graduated from the medical school of the Vermont Academy in Castleton, Vermont.After residing for a period in Greenbush, New York, Pollard then removed to Manhattan where he spent the years 1825 to 1834 practicing medicine at various locations.He married Fanny Parker in 1828, and they had one daughter before his wife's death in 1831.