By 1845, Belleville founder John Frederick traveled from his native Canada to arrive in the beautiful Sugar River Valley. Frederick had been searching for a site with water power in the hope of building a saw mill. He immediately recognized the agricultural and commercial potential of this are, and chose a site along the Sugar River as it curved through area wetlands and prairie.
By 1851, Belleville--Named for Frederick's hometown of Belleville, Ontario--had been surveyed and established as a village. A post office was constructed in 1852, and the Belleville Free Library, one of the oldest in the state opened in 1878 with over 200 volumes on its shelves. Passed over when the railroad came through in 1887, Belleville nonetheless began to grow, with its business and industry closely reflecting the agricultural area surrounding it.
The Belleville Historical society's archives are housed in the Library Park building in Belleville's town square, along with information about Belleville's pre-historic native as well as frontier history.
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