William Henry Chase, a Massachusetts-born captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, came to Pensacola, Florida, in 1826 to supervise construction of harbor fortifications defending the newly authorized Navy Yard, and by the 1830's he was interested in creating a railroad to provide more dependable transportation from the South to Northern textile mills. Mobile, seeking to protect shipping interests at Mobile Harbor and fearing competition from Pensacola, blocked permission for a Montgomery-to-Mobile line, while Alabama cotton planters strongly supported rail development because rivers often ran low during shipping season. Two railroads were formed, the Alabama and Florida in Florida and the Alabama and Florida in Alabama, with Chase heading the first and Charles T. Pollard the second. By April 12, 1856, surveyors had mapped the route from Pensacola's bay-front wharf and depot site on Tarragona Street northwest along the Escambia River forty-five miles to connect with Alabama rails laid from Montgomery to Pollard Station just north of the state boundary. Planned and laid out by Charles T. Pollard and his chief civil engineer, Samuel G. Jones, the town was named for Pollard and stood 114 miles south of Montgomery. It became a key link in the connection to Pensacola and later a Confederate line of defense with the establishment of Camp Pollard (Tattnall) in 1861. Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was once stranded there by a rail wreck and bitterly joked, "I'd rather die in vain than live in Pollard!" Longtime mayor Curtis Finlay later praised the town's air, water, grass, and birdsong, and Pollard Station's first telegraph operator was C. H. "Charlie" Edwards.