The Bush River Quaker Meeting was established in Newberry in 1770 and is located on Dennis Dairy Road, in Newberry, SC. The Quakers had been coming into Newberry County since 1762, some coming to escape religious persecution, and others because of the reasonable price of farmland. Many Quakers came from England, Ireland or the West Indies. Later many came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and North Carolina.
The Monthly Meeting was the center of their lives. When they died, they were buried at no charge in the Meeting House burial ground. The Quakers did not like slavery, thus many of them left South Carolina between 1799 and 1830, moving to Ohio or Indiana where new Monthly Meetings were established. Some moved to Tennessee and Alabama where they eventually joined other denominations. Some stayed in South Carolina, having their membership transferred to Meetings in North Carolina and the Bush River Monthly Meeting was formally disbanded or “laid down,” in 1822.