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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.
Houston Chronicle writer Susan Love Fitts recently called the inn
"the Hyatt Regency of its day, probably worthy of a five-star
rating if such designations had been issued in the mid -19th century."
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) and received news of other Texas communities from travelers.
Visitors could be seen playing a game of cards or reading one of the
two newspapers Fanthorp subscribed to, including the Galveston News.
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.
Today, as a state historical site, the inn helps modern Texans understand
the hardships of life on the Texas frontier in the 1850s.
Published with permission
All
Things Historical
May 11-17, 2003 column
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Bob Bowman is a former president of the Association and
author of nearly 30 books on East Texas. |
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