Canton is a city in and the county chair of Van Zandt County in East Texas, United States. It is located nearly 40 miles west of Tyler. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 4,229.

The city sustained severe broken on April 29, 2017, from several tornadoes, and two years future from choice tornado that struck downtown upon May 29, 2019, both of which occurred just in the past First Monday Trade Days, the popular flea present extravaganza which draws thousands to the city each month.

Canton was surveyed as ahead of time as 1840 by a company of men below Dr. W. P. King. The community stands on the indigenous survey of Jesse Stockwell, an upfront settler in the area. No agreement was made until 1850, when the town was laid out and named by settlers heartwarming from Old Canton in Smith County, Texas. The first district courthouse at Canton opened in 1850, and a name office, the county’s fourth, was established in that year.

When the Texas and Pacific Railway was built across the county in 1872, it missed Canton by 10 miles (16 km), and the citizens of Wills Point persuaded county officials to impinge on the county seat there. In the resulting quarrel in 1877, armed residents of Canton went to Wills Point to recover the records, and the county decide wired Governor Richard B. Hubbard for aid. The Texas Supreme Court finally granted in favor of Canton. Unwilling to use the railroad at Wills Point, Canton businessmen expected Edgewood, 10 mi (16 km) to the northwest of town, and built an further details to the railroad at a siding formerly called Stevenson.