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ANDERSON. Originally named Fanthorp – the name of the town was changed
after Kenneth Anderson who was the last vice-president of Texas. Anderson
died in Fanthorp in 1845.
Anderson is an anomaly - a county seat with a small population just a few
miles from the largest town in the county. Although the population never
exceeded 500 persons, it managed to retain its status as county seat.
Navasota got the railroad. In the 19th Century, getting the railroad meant
the difference between guaranteed prosperity and a slow economic death.
The distance between the towns is a mere ten miles. During the early days
of the Republic of Texas, stagecoaches rumbled across East Texas, carrying
passengers from one distant community to another.
But passengers who were unlikely to have friends and relatives
conveniently living in certain communities found overnight lodging hard to
come by. Some roadside homeowners saw the need and opened their homes to
the passengers. As a result, many pioneer homes evolved into some of East
Texas' best known stagecoach inns.
One such place was the Fanthorp Inn in Anderson today maintained as a
state historical park with many of its original furnishings. Henry
Fanthorp, an Englishmen who migrated to Texas in 1832, and his wife Rachel
founded the Inn in the l840s to serve stagecoach passengers passing the
dogtrot log house he built in 1834. The house was expanded by Fanthorp
between 1848 and 1859 to accommodate more guests and soon became known as
the Fanthorp Inn. The Fanthorps' parlor became a room where travelers
could rest on their journey.
The stagecoaches not only carried East Texans and the mail, but newcomers
seeking new lives for their families in Texas, where land was plentiful,
fertile and inexpensive. Anderson residents picked up their mail at the
inn (Fanthorp was the postmaster). The inn also became a community center,
a polling place, the site of dances and community parties, and the
founding site for a Masonic Lodge and a Methodist church.
Business was brisk in the town, which at the time was known as Alta Mira,
meaning high view. An early victim of annexation, Alta Mira lost its
identity in 1846 when Grimes County was organized and the settlement was
absorbed into Anderson.
Fanthorp, a shrewd businessman, served liquor in the parlor, guaranteeing
the return of the men of the community as well as traveling men. Women
seldom traveled in those days. General Sam Houston, a friend of Fanthorp,
was a frequent visitor. So were Anson Jones, Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary
Taylor, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Kenneth Anderson, the last vice
president of the Republic of Texas and the man for whom Anderson was
named.
Just outside the dining room was the kitchen, where slaves prepared meals.
A nearby cistern became a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a contributor
to yellow fever, a disease that killed Henry and Rachel in 1867. After
their deaths, the Fanthorps' daughter, Mary Fanthorp Stone, took over the
inn. She turned it into a private home, however, and Fanthorp descendants
lived in the house until it was conveyed to the state. |
