Frank Mandeville Rogers Jr.

Front: Frank Mandeville Rogers Jr. (1857-1945) of Florence Co. was influential in the development of Bright Leaf Tobacco in S.C. In 1884-85, he raised, cured, and sold a plot of tobacco on his Mars Bluff plantation, proving its potential to replace cotton as S.C.’s top cash crop. Rogers built a tobacco factory on Day St. and led efforts to open S.C.’s first tobacco auction warehouse, helping revitalize S.C.’s agricultural market economy. Reverse: The first auction in S.C. of flue-cured tobacco occurred on this site in Oct. 1891 at the Florence Tobacco Warehouse. Nearly 300 people attended. Before the Warehouse, Pee Dee farmers had to ship their crop to N.C. and Va. To sell. Other local markets opened soon after. By 1900, the Pee Dee produced over 90 percent of S.C.’s annual 20 million pound tobacco crop, leading The State to call the plant, “the Pearl of the Pee Dee.”