DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little extra wind in the sails. Picture 1882 — a family by the name of Stiggins packs up everything they own on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and points themselves toward Texas. William and Mary Allen Stiggins lead the way, but they don't come alone.
Traveling with them is their daughter Mary Jane, born in 1855, a woman who had already studied medicine — which, you stop and think about that for a moment, was no small thing. And riding alongside her is her fiancé, a man named Thomas Whittet, born in 1838, a former sea captain who had spent his life reading water and wind instead of roads and prairie grass. Now here is a man who had navigated open ocean, and he finds himself standing on the flat, sun-baked land of Atascosa County, Texas.
And what does Thomas Whittet do? He looks around, he takes it all in, and he declares — right then and there — that this spot is where the former seafarer would drop anchor. The marker credits him with naming this place Anchorage on account of exactly that declaration.
A sea captain who finally came ashore for good. Thomas and Mary Jane married in the early 1880s, and together they planted themselves deep into this community. In 1896, they deeded land for a church and a cemetery to serve the communities of Anchorage and Rossville, which sits about two miles to the northeast.
That same year, 1896, the oldest marked graves in that cemetery were laid — Mary Allen Stiggins herself, the matriarch who made the journey from Canada, and a woman named Annie Theresa Farran. The ground they gave became the ground that received them. Mary Jane Whittet didn't just deed land and call it a life.
She practiced medicine throughout the area, delivering babies, including all nine children in the J.M. Rogers family. Nine babies, one doctor, out on the Texas frontier.
And the Whittets ran a general store that served as the Anchorage Post Office from 1889 all the way to 1935 — the same year Mary Jane herself passed, having been born in 1855 and carrying this community on her back for decades. Thomas had gone before her, back in 1913. A frame church stood on the deeded land until 1958, when it was replaced by a cinder block building on the same site.
Buried here too is George Bopp, Jr., born in 1924, a World War II casualty, gone by 1945. By 1979, the congregation had gone quiet — inactive, the record says — and the property was deeded over to the Anchorage Cemetery Association, which still maintains this burial ground and chapel to this day. A sea captain dropped anchor here in 1882 and said this is the place.
Turned out, he was right.
What the marker says
The family of William and Mary Allen Stiggins emigrated here from Prince Edward island, Canada, in 1882. Included in the group were their daughter Mary Jane (1855-1935), who had studied medicine, and her fiancé Thoams Whittet (1838-1913), a former sea captain. Whittet is credited with naming this place Anchorage, declaring that this spot would be where the former seafarer would drop anchor. Thomas and Mary Jane married in the early 1880s, and in 1896 they deeded land for a church and cemetery to serve the communities of Anchorage and Rossville (2 mi. NE). The oldest marked graves, for Mary Allen Stiggins and Annie Theresa Farran, both date to 1896. The Whittets’ general store served as the Anchorage Post Office from 1889 to 1935. Mary Jane practiced medicine throughout the area and delivered many babies, including all nine children in the J.M. Rogers family. George Bopp, Jr. (1924-1945), a World War II casualty, is buried here. A fram church stood until 1958, replaced by a cinder block building on the same site. By 1979, the congregation was inactive, and the property was deeded to the Anchorage Cemetery Association, which maintains this burial ground and chapel. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2005