Fanthorp Inn Shows the Full Cost of Anderson's Stagecoach Years

Henry Fanthorp built a two-room cedar log dogtrot house in 1834 where two stage roads crossed his land. Travelers arrived almost immediately. The provisional Texas government appointed him postmaster in 1835, and the house expanded into an inn, store, mail stop, and gathering place.

That business depended partly on enslaved labor. The site's official guide records 32 enslaved people on Fanthorp's property in the 1860 census, more than half of them children. They served the inn and maintained his agricultural holdings. An enslaved child likely operated the dining room's overhead fan while guests ate.

Kenneth Lewis Anderson, the Republic of Texas's vice president, died at the inn in 1845. The town was renamed for him, and it became the Grimes County seat the next year. Today the Texas Historical Commission preserves the 17-room complex at 579 South Main Street. The rooms hold the stagecoach story, but also the labor and unequal lives that made its comforts possible.