Village of West Belleville

Village of West Belleville. . , For 30 years, West Belleville was an independent municipality. founder was Theodor Hilgard, A Judge from Rhenish Bavaria who immigrated here in 1835 as part of the Latin Farmer migration of intellectuals and dissidents who left Germany for a freer life in 1837. He platted the first lots of what would become the Village of West Belleville. Most of the area's residents were German Americans Caucasian male voters 21 years of age or older voted to establish a town in 1852. The form of government changed in 1874, when male voters decided to incorporate as a village., West Belleville was one mile square extending along Main Street from Richland Creek on the east to about 22nd Street on the west. The public square on the north side of West Main at 11th Street was the site of the firehouse, with its meeting rooms for municipal officials. On the square south of main was the public scale, where vendors arriving to sell coal, hay, grain or other commodities would have the weighmaster certify the weight of their loads., Along Main Street, dry goods, stores, groceries, saddle shops, tailors, saloons, and blacksmiths formed a commercial district. Von Schrader's Distillery and Western Brewery (later named Stag Brewery) were major employers but coal mining was the main occupation in West Belleville. The community had one elementary school., The Village of West Belleville grew modestly to a population of about 3,000 but the coast of providing municipal serves proved daunting voters agreed to merge with the City of Belleville in 1882, losing some political independence but gaining some economic efficiency., The neighborhood has been designated a Historical District on the national Register of Historical Places.