- Belleville
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/bel"vil/, n.1. a city in SW Illinois. 42,150.2. a city in NE New Jersey. 35,367.3. a city in S Ontario, in S Canada. 34,881.
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city, seat (1814) of St. Clair county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies east of the Mississippi River, about 16 miles (26 km) from St. Louis (Saint Louis), Missouri.Located on bluffs forming the eastern rim of a floodplain along the Mississippi River, it was founded by George Blair of France in 1814 and given the French name for “Beautiful City.” For decades beginning in the 1830s, the city was transformed by an influx of German immigrants and the opening of coal mines in the vicinity. Belleville's economy was diversified, with coal mining and manufacturing (cooking and heating equipment) as the primary factors. Scott Air Force Base (1917) is just east and forms the basis of the city's economy. Agriculture (corn [maize], soybeans, wheat, and livestock) is also important, and there is some manufacturing of appliances and space heaters. Belleville is the seat of Southwestern Illinois (community) College (1946). Local attractions include a historical museum, located in a Greek Revival-style home built in 1866; the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of St. Peter, founded in 1842 and modeled after a church in Exeter, England; and Emma Kunz House Museum, located in a typical German “street house” built in 1830. The 200-acre (80-hectare) National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows (1958) is located just northwest. MidAmerica St. Louis Airport is located in Mascoutah, east of Belleville. Inc. village, 1819; city, 1850. Pop. (1990) 42,785; (2000) 41,410.city, seat (1792) of Hastings county, southeastern Ontario, Canada, on the Bay of Quinte, an inlet of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Moira River.The site was first visited by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain (Champlain, Samuel de) in 1615; it was settled after 1776 by loyalists (loyalist) from the United States and named Meyers' Creek for John Meyers, an early gristmill operator. In 1816 the city was renamed Belleville in honour of Arabella Gore, wife of Francis Gore, lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. Reached by the railroad in 1855, it soon became an important terminal and service centre.Economic activities include dairying (especially cheese making), meat-packing, and the manufacture of cement, conveyor machinery, plastics, and electronic equipment. Belleville is also a vacation resort and the site of Albert College (founded in 1854), the Loyalist College of Applied Arts and Technology, and a school for the deaf. Both national transcontinental railroads and the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, which links Windsor, Toronto (113 miles [182 km] west), and Montreal (232 miles [373 km] east), serve the city. Inc. town, 1850; city, 1877. Pop. (2006) 48,821.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
