Belleville

Sister cities

• Paderborn

History

In 1814, George Blair Belleville after the French phrase belle ville, meaning "beautiful city". Because Blair donated an acre of his land for the town square and an additional adjoining the square for the new county seat, the legislature transferred the county seat from the village of Cahokia, which French colonists had established as a mission village in the late 17th century. Belleville was incorporated as a village in 1819, and became a city in 1850. Major immigration in the mid-19th century to this area occurred following revolutions in Germany, and most of the European-American population is of German ancestry. Many of the educated Germans fled their homeland after the failure of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Belleville was the center of Illinois's first major German settlement. By 1870, an estimated 90% of the city's population was either German-born or of German descent. After the Civil War, Belleville became a manufacturing center, producing nails, printing presses, gray iron castings, agricultural equipment, and stoves. It became known as "The Stove Capital of the World". Illinois's first brewery was established in Belleville. In 1868, Gustav Goelitz founded the candy company known today as "Jelly Belly". The Old Belleville Historic District was defined and recognized in 1974 and is the city's first historic district. The city also has designated two more historic districts: Hexenbuckel, established in 1991, and Oakland, established in 1995. Belleville's early German immigrants were educated, most of them having graduated from German universities. They were nicknamed "Latin Farmers" because of this. After 1836, Gustav Koerner contributed to establish the Belleville Public Library, which is the state's oldest, predating the Illinois State…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Belleville has a total area of , of which (or 98.83%) is land and (or 1.17%) is water. Richland Creek flows through much of Belleville.

Race & ethnicity