Belleville (Illinois)
St. Clair County
17-04845
Belleville is a city and the administrative center of St. Clair County in the western part of the U.S. state of Illinois. In 2010, Belleville had 44 478 inhabitants.
The city is located in the Metro - East called the eastern part of the metropolitan area of Greater St. Louis the city of St. Louis in neighboring Missouri.
Mayor of Belleville is since the end of 2004 Mark Eckert of the Good Government Party, an offshoot of the Democratic Party.
Geography
Belleville is located in the south-eastern suburban area of St. Louis at 38 ° 31'12 " north latitude and 89 ° 59'02 " west longitude. The city covers 60 square kilometers, spread to 59 km ² land and 1 km ² water surface. The Mississippi River, which forms the border with Missouri lies about six miles to the west.
The City of Belleville is identical to the equivalent Township, an outline of the county consisting of several villages in many other instances.
Towns nearby Belleville are Swansea ( on the northern city limits ), O'Fallon (12,4 km northeast), Shiloh (9.2 km north-east ), the Scott Air Force Base ( 13.8 km ENE ) Mascoutah (19, 7 km east-southeast ), Freeburg (13,9 km southeast), Smithton (12,8 km to the south), Millstadt (13.3 km southwest), Cahokia (22,4 km west-north- west ) and East St. Louis (18,7 km northwest ). The center of St. Louis is located 27.8 km north west.
Traffic
A few kilometers away passes along the northern outskirts of Interstate 64 that runs from St. Louis to Louisville in Kentucky. Along the north-western city border is Interstate 255, the beltway of St. Louis. In the city of Belleville, the Illinois State Routes 13, 15 meet, 157, 159, 159, 161 and 177 together. All other roads are subordinate partly unpaved roadways and urban streets.
Through the city of Belleville performs a line of Metrolink light rail called the St. Louis metropolitan area. In Belleville there are three stations of the railway.
By Belleville runs a railway line of the Canadian National Railway, which runs from St. Louis to the southeast.
The St. Louis Downtown Airport is located 22.4 km north west, the greater Lambert -Saint Louis International Airport is 49.7 kilometers north-northwest of Belleville.
History
The city of Belleville was founded in 1814 on land owned by George Blair, and received city rights in 1850. After the Frankfurt Guard storm 1834 many German who emigrated here - and again a large group after the failed revolution of 1848 Among other things, the Baden revolutionary Friedrich Hecker moved here and lived until his death in 1881 near the town as a farmer and winemaker. In 1887, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville was built. It was not until 1914, the town was the occasion of its 100th founding day of the government seat of St. Clair County.
Already around 1850 Belleville was an important industrial center - mainly based on agriculture and coal mining, the number of inhabitants amounted at that time to about 3000 The first mills were in 1813 and the first coal mine was put into operation immediately after the discovery of coal in 1825.. Later, the steel industry was added, thereby Belleville was a stronghold of the American nail and furnace production. Based on coal mining or Eisenerzverhüttung the industrial side of the city developed in the late 19th century. In 1856 they led in the city gas lighting and the town was also connected with the construction of a railway line with only 15 km from the city of St. Louis ( Missouri) on the opposite bank of the Mississippi River.
In the census of 1840, there were 1,210 inhabitants in 280 households, well a generation later (1880 ) there are already 10,090 citizens. According to the 2000 census, Belleville has now 41,410 inhabitants in an area of 49.2 km ².
One of the largest employers in the county is the Scott Air Force Base, one of the most important bases of the U.S. Air Force.
The German influence
Hardly any other city in Illinois was such of a single ethnic group dominates as Belleville: Around the year 1870, around about 90 % of the population German or of German descent - most of them rather belong to the educated middle class, are as a farmer therefore less successful, and determine long been the economic, cultural and social life. Also, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Belleville, John ( originally John) Janssen, was a native German.
Special characters of this German time are founded in 1864 " Philharmonic Society " (now Belleville Philharmonic Musical Society ), whose orchestra is now one of the oldest in the United States, the Belleville Choral Society from 1855 and the German Library of St. Clair County from 1836 with German books from all areas of science as well as the Greek and Roman classics. About daily events reported since 1844 the Belleville observer, in 1849 renamed newspaper in Belleville, which until 1923 could even survive the First World War, with its anti-German sentiment.
In the 20th century for the region the name " Low German prairie " was coined (eg because of the district of Paderborn in Waterloo ). Even today, several facilities are dominated by German -born cultural heritage.
So it is not surprising that very many graves of German can be found on the old Walnut Hill Cemetery ( Walnut Hill Cemetery, City of Belleville, 1101 Mascoutah Avenue, Belleville, IL 62220-3625 ).
Twinning
The German city of Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1990 twin city of Belleville. Support of this partnership is the German -American friends.
Demographic data
According to the census in 2010 lived in Belleville 44 478 people in 18,795 households. The population density was 907.7 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the 18,795 households lived statistically 2.3 persons each.
The racial the population was composed of 69.8 percent white, 25.4 percent African American, 0.3 percent Native American, 0.1 percent Asian and 0.6 percent from other ethnic groups; 2.8 percent were descended from two or more races. Regardless of ethnicity were 2.6 percent of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
23.3 percent of the population were under 18 years old, 63.8 percent were between 18 and 64 and 12.9 percent were 65 years or older. 52.5 percent of the population was female.
The median annual income for a household was $ 46,872. The per capita income was $ 24,809. 13.4 percent of the population lived below the poverty line.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Jimmy Connors ( born 1952 ), tennis player
- Jay Farrar (born 1967 ), songwriter
- Jaimee Foxworth ( born 1979 ), actress
- Ray Knepper ( * 1920 † 2000), race car driver
- Jim Knobeloch (* 1950), actor
- Sandy Magnus ( b. 1964 ), NASA astronaut
- Jeff Tweedy (born 1967 ), songwriter
- Kevin Adkisson aka Kevin Erich ( b. 1957 ), Wrestler