Chester is a town in Orange County, New York, United States.

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 (230 L) of milk by train to New York City.

The railroad earned $1.20 ($29 in modern dollars[6]) in freight charges; Gregory's business eventually grew to 300,000 quarts (280,000 L) of milk per day, which in turn gave the railroad over $1,000 ($24,000 in modern dollars[6]) in daily profit.

It learned that the development appeared to be targeted toward the Satmar Hasidic community, whose rapid growth in this area had caused tensions.

[7] 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.

16.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.