A history of Chester,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Chester from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Samuel Smith is said to be the town's founder because he built the first home in Chester, established a ferry system, and began the construction of a mill in 1829. The town was named after Chester, England, the city from where his wife Jane Smith was from. The first business in Chester was a general store that opened in 1830 along with a castor oil press established by R. B. Servant, who furnished farmers with seed and growing methods to later buy the beans they produced for oil extraction. This was a flourishing business until the petroleum industry made it obsolete.
The first wedding in the town of Chester was held on February 4, 1834. Content Walker, the bride and Amzi Andrews, the groom held their wedding in a 16 feet square log cabin.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Chester’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSouthern Illinois State Penitenti…, 1917: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Chester
See all 6 →
Chester, decade by decade
1970s
CommonsAirslide Hopper, GATX1989
CommonsAirslide Hopper, NS1989
CommonsAirslide Hopper, UP1989
CommonsSouthern Pacific SP 7803 (B30-7)1989
CommonsSouthern Pacific SP 7811 (B30-7)1989
CommonsSouthern Pacific SP 7819 (B30-7)1989
CommonsSouthern Pacific SP 7826 (B30-7)1989
CommonsSouthern Pacific SP 7829 (B30-7)19891990s
3 historic places in Chester
3 places in Chester are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Southern Illinois State Penitentiary (1917) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (9), the Library of Congress (1) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.