Editing Stockton, Illinois (section)

==History==
The village of Stockton is the youngest village in Jo Daviess County.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.villageofstockton.com/community/stockton-history.html|title=Stockton History {{!}} Village of Stockton|website=www.villageofstockton.com|access-date=January 24, 2019}}</ref> It was established after the Minnesota Northwestern Railroad decided to build a station in Section 2 of [[Stockton Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois|Stockton Township]] in 1886, which through mergers later became named the [[Chicago Great Western Railway]]. The railroad tracks were removed in the early 1970s.<ref name=cgwhist>Huddleston, Jerry. "[http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/history-bin/cgw_winston%20tunnel.html CGW's Winston Tunnel]", accessed April 7, 2009.</ref>

What is now Front Street in Stockton was then a dirt road which served as the main thoroughfare to [[Lena, Illinois|Lena]]. In April 1887, one Charles Hermann became Stockton's first business owner.<ref name=nrhp>Donth, Cynthia. "[http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis/PDFs/201056.pdf W.E. White Building]{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}", ([[PDF]]), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, June 27, 1997, ''[[Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]]'', accessed May 4, 2008.</ref>

In 1914, the [[Kraft Foods Inc.#Beginning|Kraft Brothers]] opened a cheese factory in Stockton, and operated it until Kraft sold the facility in 1998.<ref name=kraft1>StocktonIL.com "[http://www.stocktonil.com/History.html Stockton History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418024050/http://stocktonil.com/History.html |date=2009-04-18 }}", accessed April 7, 2009.</ref><ref name=kraft2>KraftFoodsCompany.com "[http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/About/history/ History of Kraft Foods] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416052619/http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/About/history |date=2009-04-16 }}", accessed April 7, 2009.</ref> This was the birthplace of the Kraft Corporation and the first cheese plant opened by J.L. Kraft.<ref>Galena, Jo Daviess County Visitors Guide, 2012</ref>