Chester, Texas
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Colmesneil-Chester census division. It lies in ZIP code area 75936. It stands on Dry Creek. The Survey maps it on the Chester quadrangle. 270 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 246 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresChester grew from 265 to 270 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 265 | |
| 2010 | 312 | +47 (+18%) |
| 2020 | 270 | -42 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Camden quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS Chester quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Livingston quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Livingston quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
38 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Chester between 1992 and 2020, burning about 281 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | LIVINGSTON - 879 |
| 5 September 2005 | Smoking | 7.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 189 |
| 4 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 311 |
| 4 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 35 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 185 |
| 11 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | POLK 19:55 |
| 6 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | 18 acres | Livingston Area | LIVINGSTON - 254 |
| 6 August 2002 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 172 |
| 5 August 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
27 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester in 27 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 14 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Chester | 1 killed, $60,000,000 | Harvey produced 20 to 30 inches of rain which flooded 1,730 homes. Major flooding occurred in Warren, Fred, and along the Neches River where it had the 4th highest crest at Town Bluff. 1 death was a result of the flooding. |
| October 2009 | Flash Flood | Chester | $10,000 | TXDOT reported FM 1745 was flooded near the Tyler/Polk County line west of Chester. |
| February 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2023 | Hail | Chester | $5,000 | Dime to Quarter sized hail damaged vents, AC units, broke a window in a church, and damaged wood siding. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $5,000 | Trees were blown down near FM 1745. |
| March 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 1994 | Hail | Chester | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $2,000 | Trees were downed and or snapped along FM 1745. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $2,000 | no account filed |
| January 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $1,000 | Power lines were downed by winds along Highway 287 west of Chester. |
| March 2026 | Hail | Chester | - | Hail of 1.25 inches was reported from Chester. |
| May 2024 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Russel Creek flooded FM 1745 during a heavy thunderstorm. Roads also began to flood near Colmesneil. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Chester | - | Pictures were received through social media of hail over two inches in diameter. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Chester | - | The Tyler County Emergency Manager reported 1 inch hail in Chester. |
| July 2015 | Hail | Chester | - | A Co-Op observer near Chester reported hail to one inch in diameter. |
| October 2014 | Hail | Chester | - | Golf ball size hail was reported around one mile southeast of Chester. |
| October 2013 | Heavy Rain | Chester | - | Heavy rain caused minor flooding of FM 1745 at Russel Creek and at Billiums Creek in the Chester area. |
| April 2009 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Tyler County Sheriff Office reported major flooding along Highway 1745 near Chester. |
| May 2009 | Flash Flood | Chester | - | Tyler County Sheriff Office reported several roads covered by high water across the county. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Chester | - | Early morning thunderstorm produced nickle-size hail in ,,Chester. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Chester | - | Three-quarter inch hail reported in Chester from thunderstorm activity. The thunderstorm complex produced in excess of five inches of rain over Tyler, Jasper, and Newton Counties. A flash flood warning was issued for these three counties. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| February 2003 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| November 2001 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| March 1999 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peach Tree Village | 1.6 miles | 12 | |
| Dies Community | 7.2 miles | 12 | |
| Colmesneil | 9.3 miles | 12 | |
| Cima | 10.4 miles | 12 | |
| Doucette | 11.6 miles | 12 | |
| Magnolia Hills | 12.0 miles | 12 | |
| Haralson Lakes | 12.0 miles | 12 | |
| Rockland | 12.9 miles | 16 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Chester | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q974292 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1354374. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.






