(Roger Moore accounts gleaned from The Plantersville Connection.)

"I am Roger Moore, son of Mack Moore and Juanita Rogers Moore and grandson of Achilles Rogers and "Miss Willie" Rogers. I graduated from Plantersville High School in 1945. My first cousin, Robert Rogers, sent your Plantersville Connection blog site to his sister, Elizabeth Rogers Bilbo, who forwarded it to me. Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you for including the story about your mother relating the message about the death of my brother, Mack Jr., to my folks in 1942. Thank you, also, for relating the story of the murder of my grandfather. My mother told me that a Mr. Jones was tried for the murder and acquitted but confessed to the murder on his death bed.

I am glad that you are recognizing Cecil Johnson and the many things he did for the children in Plantersville. You asked for additional stories regarding Cecil. Cecil loved baseball. He played center field on the local baseball team in the late 1930's that also included Ed Parker, Hulon "Shine" Parker, Joe Rogers, Jiggs Monts and the men in that age group. The ball field was located in the pasture behind Mr. Brown Parker's house. It was a beautiful ball park. Cecil would spend hours mowing the field and scraping the infield. When I was a youngster, Cecil would spend a great deal of time knocking fungoes (fly balls) to the kids my age. Finishing up the practice, he liked to run laps around the outside of the infield. It kept him in good condition, which helped him when he was drafted during World War II, although he was nearly 35 years old. Cecil was sent to the South Pacific. His letters home were censored, as were all letters from the soldiers; however, Cecil would add a letter from the alphabet to the bottom of each letter home. He started with the letter "G", followed with the letter "O" in his next letter, etc., until he spelled out the words "Good Enough." That was an island just off New Guinea, where he was stationed.

"Thinking of Cecil, I remember my Dad and my Uncle Robert, Robert Rogers' dad, used to play tennis with Cecil at the tennis court that the McDonalds had at their house. They used to play with Lemuel, one of the McDonald boys. Lemuel, as I recall, was a Lt. Colonel in the Army during the invasion of France in World War II. The McDonald's son that was my age was Virgil (Raymond Virgil). Quinlan (Leroy Quinlan) McDonald was at State when I was there. A daughter of the McDonalds, Inez I believe, was an Army nurse and was on Corregidor when the Japanese invaded the Phillippines. She was captured and was a prisoner of war."

Harve Mitchell's store was next door to Arthur and Madge Bailey's house. The store was adjoining the woods across from the Mabry house that you used to walk through to get to your Aunt Grace's house. I got my social security number when I started to work for Harve at this location, working on his peddling truck that went up into the "tater hills" section, down to the Brewer community, and the Richmond area among others. I would box up eggs and put chickens in coops that we carried, as the farmers used eggs and chickens to barter.

Nearer to the turn of the century, the store was owned by Charles (Choc) Rogers, my grand-father's brother, and Tom Johnson, I believe, Cecil's father. Harve married Kittye Rogers, Uncle Choc's daughter. Uncle Choc's wife, Aunt Kittye, was the sister of Tom Johnson. When I was a youngster, Mr. Harve and Mr. Tom were running the store. It had originally been located next to the post office, which was across from the Lester Gunter house.

My mother's grandfather, Robert (Bob) Henderson Rogers, served [in the Civil War]. My mother used to tell of sitting on his lap when she was a little girl, and he would show her his cap that had a bullet hole through it that was obtained at Shiloh. The attached file is a letter written by him to the Secretary of Interior asking for information about his grandfather, James Rogers, who served in the Revolutionary War. Although R. H. Rogers lived about three miles south of the present Plantersville, his address on the letter is shown as Verona. That confirms your comment about Plantersville not yet being founded at the time he wrote the letter. James Rogers died in Monroe County, near Aberdeen ca. 1843. (See George’s blog Nov.6, 2006 post for copy of the letter.)