Newberry Opera House in Newberry, SC (2016, November 29). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 16:06, May 26, 2021.
The origin of the name Newberry is unknown. The county was formed in 1785 as a part of the Ninety Six District, and the county seat is the city of Newberry. This part of the upcountry was settled largely by Scotch-Irish, English, and German immigrants in the mid-eighteenth century. Germans were so prevalent in Newberry County that it become known as Dutch Fork, with Dutch meaning Deutsch (German). Large-scale cotton farming replaced small farms in the nineteenth century, and the coming of the railroad made Newberry a leading cotton market. Historians John Belton O'Neall (1795-1863) and David Duncan Wallace (1874-1951) were Newberry County natives, as was governor and U. S. Senator Coleman L. Blease (1868-1942).
