Welcome:
 
 I've found a few bits here
 and there. Some on a visit
 to Belleville the rest came
 from my grandmother.
 Lets not forget to plug the
 records I found on the
 Family Search website.

 The photos I have were
 passed down through 
 Hermans personel 
 belongings and his 
 brother Charles.

 			

Here are some documents

• 1850 Census sheet

• 1860 Census sheet 1

• 1860 Census sheet 2

• 1870 Census sheet

• Death Certificate

• Obituary

• Travel Papers
• 
  

Marriage Information
March 18 1846

They were joined together by a justice of the peace.

Thomas Heberer Was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. A native of Darmstadt, Starkenburg, Hessen, which is now part of Germany. He was born in a world of turmoil. War had broken out in Europe and it was safer to venture a trip to America then to stay in Europe. Thomas and his Brothers crossed the Atlantic to the New World. Records show they arrived in Baltimore Maryland in 1833. This would be at a time when cholera was sweeping though cities around the country. They brought wagons with them on the voyage and used them to take an over land route to Illinois. In the "HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY" I found mention of Thomas in its account of early settlers. It States: "German settlers at Turkey Hill. - In 1831 and 1832 the following families settled on or near Turkey Hill: John Knobloch, Thomas Heberer, etc. Most of these men were successful farmers. Heberer who studied at the agricultural academy of Fallerburg in Berne Switzerland, in 1832 planted a vineyard and made wine, at the quality of which his neighbors looked askance. Thomas Heberer was the son of an unknown Heberer and Magdalena last name Unknown. He Married Caroline Fredicker Voelker on March 18,1846. The Heberer brothers (Thomas, Henry and Adam) opened the City Park Brewery sometime in the 1850". The city Park Garden and City Park Theater, after its construction in 1859 it was for many years one of the city's leading places of amusement. It was built on the site of the Heberer Brewery. As an adjunct to the brewery The City Park Garden, patterned after the European beer gardens, was for many year the gathering place of Belleville's German families. It was a place of dignity and refinement and had the flavor of "Old Vienna", expressing so typically all that is meant in that German word "Gemuetlichkeit". The theater was the scene of many balls where the people in town came to dance to waltzes and polkas. Beer manufacturing continued at the corner of Richland and North 1st until June of 1865, when brewer Adam Heberer was arrested for evasion of revenue laws. The brewery was seized by the Federal Government and later sold at auction. While this brought an end to the Heberer brothers brewing, the theater was later refurbished and continued for many years. Thomas by then had established depots in Centralia and O�fallen where he would ship beer all over the Midwest, and as far as Kansas City. But in January 1872 He came down with a sickness that overcame him rather quickly. On January 22,1872 he died. He is now buried in Walnut Hill Cemetery sec 802 along side his wife, brother Adam, and sons Ewald and Herman. His son Ewald Heberer died on April 29,1872 the same way. In 1884 the theater was remodeled and now had a seating capacity of a thousand people and became known as the Opera House. In 1895 it was sold to a brewer from St. Louis named Adolphus Busch.

Caroline Fredicker was a native of Pfalz Bayern. She was the daughter of JOANNES HENRICUS VOELKER and ANNA MARIA FLEISCHBEIN. Born about 1822 she was the youngest of at least 3 children. At the age of 16 she braved a crossing of the Atlantic with her family on August 6th 1839. I have their paper of travel. It's a Reise-Pass from Bayern for travel to Nord America. It says Caroline came here with her father and two other children. Phillipina Voelker and the other name is not legible. It says they landed in Havre de Grace. Once here I would guess they traveled west by steamboat. Baltimore was a port town with steamboats going to locations all over America. I can only guess at why their destination was the Midwest. Anne had relatives in New Orleans and in Belleville Illinois. They were doing well and may have contacted the family and told them to come to America. As for her father's side I have not found any relitives living in the midwest at that time. I also have to assume that her mother had past prior the the family coming to America.