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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
1880, it was leased to the St Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company for 486 years, and has since been operated by that corporation in connection with its Belleville branch, from East St. Louis to Belleville. At Eldorado the road intersects the Cairo & Vincennes Railroad and the Shawneetown branch of the St. Louis & Southeastern Railroad, operated by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company. Its capital stock (1895) is $1,000,000 and its bonded debt $550,000. The corporate office is at Belleville.
BELLEVILLE & ILLINOISTOWN RAILROAD. (See St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad.)
BELLEVILLE & SOUTHERN ILLINOIS RAILROAD, a road (laid with steel rails) running from Belleville to Duquoin, Ill., 56.4 miles in length. It was chartered Feb. 15, 1857, and completed Dec. 15, 1873. At Duquoin it connects with the Illinois Central and forms a short line between St. Louis and Cairo. Oct. 1, 1866, it was leased to the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company for 999 years. The capital stock is $1,692,000 and the bonded debt $1,000,000. The corporate office is at Belleville.
BELLMONT, a village of Wabash County, on the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Railway, 9 miles west of Mount Carmel. Population (1880), 350; (1890), 487; (1900), 624.
BELT RAILWAY COMPANY OF CHICAGO, THE, a corporation chartered, Nov. 22, 1882, and the lessee of the Belt Division of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad (which see). Its total trackage (all of standard gauge and laid with 66-pound steel rails) is 93.26 miles, distributed as follows : Auburn Junction to Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Junction, 15.9 miles; branches from Pullman Junction to Irondale, Ill., etc., 5.41 miles; second track, 14.1 miles; sidings, 57.85 miles. The cost of construction has been $524,549; capital stock, $1,200,000. It has no funded debt. The earnings for the year ending June 30, 1895, were $556,847, the operating expenses 8378,012, and the taxes $51,009.
BELYIDERE,an incorporated city, the county-seat of Boone County, situated on the Kishwaukee River, and on two divisions of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 78 miles west-northwest of Chicago and 14 miles east of Rockford; is connected with the latter city by electric railroad. The city has twelve churches, five graded schools, and three banks (two national). Two daily and two semi-weekly papers are published here. Belvidere also has v
