The following information came by way of J.B. Lorren.

"When someone hears the name of the community, Pollard's Bend, I'm sure that there are a lot of different ideas which come to the mind.  First, it might mean that the area is in the bend of the river.  Second, they may think that the area was named for a person whose name was Pollard.  These ideas are both right but to most people who have lived in Pollard's Bend, it's called home.
    Pollard's Bend includes the territory in the bend of the Coosa River between Leesburg and Slackland.  The Bend is the largest of the communities of Cherokee County, Alabama.  It received its name from Benjamin Pollard who came to the Bend around the late 1830's.  He and another Pollard named William, bought land in the 1840's in the lower section of the Bend near Shady Grove Baptist Church.  On January 9, 1836, the first voting precinct for the area was established near Benjamin's house.  There were other Pollards that helped settle the Bend but the family connections are unknown.  Also, there were two Benjamin Pollards in the Bend; therefore, it is confusing for which one the area was named.  The families of John, Eli, and James Pollard lived near the upper section of the Bend near the present location of Carl Sewell's home.  It is believed that this house is the oldest in the Bend.
    Richard Sewell, of Leesburg, Alabama, related that he had heard tales as a child that the early Pollards of the Bend left before the Civil War in twenty odd covered wagons heading to the Mississippi Delta.  Some people say that Benjamin Pollard later went to Arkansas and founded Pollards, Arkansas.
    The area is divided into two sections.  The upper section, being closest to Centre, was known as Elrath.  It was later called the Bothwell-Shiloh Community.  The area was named for Samuel McElrath who lived at the top of the hill where Jack Adrian's home is today.  Later he moved to Centre and was buried at Neal Hill Cemetery.  There was a post office near this house that was established in 1892 and Elias M. Sheppard was Postmaster.  Barbara Lowe would carry the mail from Wood's Bend to Pollard's Bend by mule in the early years.
    Starting at the Coosa River near Centre, one family of early settlers was the James J. Trippe family.  He was responsible for the Trippe Ferry which was started later in the county.  He is listed in the 1850 census of Cherokee County with his wife, Ann, and six children.  Also, listed in with the family was his father, William.  William Trippe was also listed in the early census of 1840.
    Living near the Trippe's was Thomas Mountain.  Thomas Mountain's family came to Pollard's Bend from Jefferson County, Georgia, about 1838.  He and his wife, Mary had seven children in Georgia before coming to the Bend.  After arriving in the Bend another daughter, Mary, was born.  In the 1850 census David Bothwell was living with his uncle, Thomas.  On March 22, 1853, and March 24, 1856, Mr. Mountain was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace for Beat 9."