Newberry County, South Carolina

Newberry County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2010 census, its population was 37,508. Its county seat is Newberry. The name is of unknown origin.

Newberry County comprises the Newberry, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Columbia-Orangeburg-Newberry, SC Combined Statistical Area.

History

Newberry County was formed from the Ninety Six District in 1785. Prior to its formal founding, the area was the site of several American Revolutionary War battles: Williams' Plantation, Dec. 31, 1780; Mud Lick, March 2, 1781; and Bush River, May 1781.^[3]The town of Newberry was founded in 1789 as the county seat and was sometimes called Newberry Courthouse for that reason.

Originally settled by yeomen farmers, in the nineteenth century numerous plantations were established for the cultivation of short-staple cotton. Its processing had been made profitable by invention of the cotton gin. Cotton was the primary crop grown in Newberry County before the American Civil War. Newberry was a trading town, and expanded with the arrival of the railroad in the early 1850s, which connected it to major towns and markets. Newberry College was established by the Lutheran Church in 1856.