S.C. Encyclopedia | One of twenty-eight liberal arts colleges of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Newberry College was chartered in December 1856 by the South Carolina Lutheran Synod. Under the leadership of the Reverend John Bachman as chairman of the board of trustees, a building was erected in the town of Newberry, a president and several faculty secured, and classes begun in 1859. Almost immediately came the devastating impact of the Civil War, which resulted in the closing of the college. Its buildings were utilized in 1865 as a Confederate hospital and then occupied by federal troops, who inflicted much damage.