Blooming Grove Plantation – Florence – Florence County

Basic Information

• Location – Florence, Florence County

  3499 Rogers Court, off Pocket Road (1, p. 1)
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Mandeville-Rogers House (1, p. 1)
  

• Current status – Privately owned (1, p. 1)
  

Timeline

• Circa 1790 – Earliest known date of existence (1, p. 2)
  

  Cornelius Mandeville acquired the property (1, p. 2).
  

• 1790 – House built (1, p. 2)
  

  Cornelius Mandeville built a two-story house in the Early Classical Revival style (1, p. 2).
  

• 1831 – Cornelius Mandeville died without a will. It appears the court awarded his daughter, Henrietta, the plantation (1, p. 10).
  

• 1832 – Henrietta Mandeville married Robert Rogers and Rogers became owner of Blooming Grove. The description of the plantation's size at this time was "Muses Bridge on Black Creek to the great Pee Dee River." (1, p. 10).
  

• Late 1800s – Robert Rogers's son, Robert Mandeville Rogers, inherited the plantation when his father died (1, p. 10).
  

• Prior 1890 – Robert Mandeville Rogers gave Blooming Grove Plantation to his daughter Meta (1, p. 11).
  

• 1890 – Meta Rogers gave the plantation to her mother Cornelia M. Rogers (1, p. 11).
  

• Prior to 1905 – Frank Mandeville Rogers Sr. was given the plantation by his mother, Cornelia M. Rogers (1, p. 11).
  

• 1905 – Frank Mandeville Rogers Sr. turned the plantation over to his son, Gilmore Simms Rogers (1, p. 11).
  

• Circa 1910 – Gilmore Simms Rogers transferred Blooming Grove Plantation to his brother Frank Mandeville Rogers Jr. Frank was an innovative and very successful tobacco farmer and it is thought that he long managed the crops grown at Blooming Grove prior to his ownership of the plantation (1, p. 11) (3) (4) .
  

• 1945 – Frank Mandeville Rogers Jr. passed away and it appears the plantation became the property of his cousin, Fannie M. Rogers. It is about this time that farming became less profitable. The plantation's property was subdivided and sold off with Fannie retaining a piece that included the house (1, p. 9, 12).
  

• 1953 – Fannie M. Rogers passed the plantation, containing 49 acres at the time, to her nephew Robert Rogers. Rogers built a ranch style house on the property where he resided (1, p. 12).
  

• 2000 – Cornelia M. Rogers became the plantation's owner and in 2003, began restoring and renovating the plantation house (1, p. 12).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,500 in 1874; 125 in 1890; 125 in 1905; 49 in 1953; 49 in 2004 (1, p. 4, 12)

• Primary crop – Cotton; tobacco (1, p. 8, 11) (3) (4)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 2004
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. Information contributed by Cyndi Shull from:
   – Florence County Cultural Resources Element Report - PDF - p. 21
   

3. Information contributed by Cyndi Shull from:
   – Eldred E. Prince and Robert R. Simpson, Long Green: The Rise and Fall of Tobacco in South Carolina, (University of Georgia Press: 2013) - Excerpt
   

4. Information contributed by Cyndi Shull from:
   – Barbara Hahn, Making Tobacco Bright: Institutions, Information and Industrialization in the Creation of an Agricultural Commodity, 1617-1937, (ProQuest: 2006) - Excerpt