Place:Chester, Warren, New York, United States

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Chester is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 12,187 at the 2017 census estimates.^[1] Chester contains a village, also called Chester.

Chester is the birthplace of Philadelphia-style cream cheese.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Lenape people have settled in Orange County for over 5,000 years. Europeans first settled in the 1700s which were ethnic Dutch and English colonists.

The economy of the early town was based on dairy products, particularly milk. This industry flourished because completion of the Erie Railroad in 1841, which ran through Chester, enabled local farmers to ship their products to New York City, where demand was high. For instance, local farmer Phil Gregory would ship 240 quarts of milk by train to New York City. The railroad earned $1.20 ($ in modern dollars) in freight charges; Gregory's business eventually grew to 300,000 quarts of milk per day, which in turn gave the railroad over $1,000 ($ in modern dollars) in daily profit.^[2]

Late 20th century to present

In 2018, the Town of Chester approved a large residential development. It learned that the development appeared to be targeted toward the Satmar Hasidim community, whose rapid growth in this area had caused tensions. The large families of the Orthodox created strains for the local public school system, and there were other tensions between the strict Kiryas Joel and neighboring communities. Town supervisor Alex Jamieson told a local newspaper that the town would be buying up areas of undeveloped open space, including around the planned development in Chester, in order "to keep the Hasidic out so that they can't control the Town Board."^[3] His comments were widely reported and criticized by The Forward as antisemitic.

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