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R” is for Rogers, Frank Mandeville (1857-1945)

“R” is for Rogers, Frank Mandeville (1857-1945). Farmer, businessman. In the 1880s, Rogers, a native of Mars Bluff, began experimenting with bright leaf (flue-cured) tobacco. Relying heavily on printed instructions, he planted three acres of Orinoco tobacco and built a log barn to cure his crop. His tobacco profits were more than ten times greater per acre than the return for cotton at prevailing prices. Rogers publicized his success in area newspapers and encouraged others to plant tobacco. In 1885 the Charleston News and Courier publicized his efforts and encouraged the state’s farmers to plant bright leaf tobacco instead of cotton. Aware that further expansion of tobacco culture was hindered by a lack of local markets, Frank Mandeville Rogers led a group of businessmen to found the state’s first bright leaf market in Florence in 1891.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.