We’ve got some news from the farm one mile north of town: Nadig Farms is now a proud member of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce. It’s a small thing on paper (a name added to a member list) but for our family it feels like coming home to a table we’ve always sat at.
Because the truth is, our roots and Stockton’s roots have been tangled together for a long, long time. Joining the Chamber is just us making it official.
A Farm That Grew Up Alongside Stockton
Nadig Farms sits a mile north of Stockton, Illinois, on the ground that makes this corner of Jo Daviess County.
When you farm in a place this long, the town’s story becomes your story.
So before we tell you where Nadig Farms is headed, let us tell you a little about where Stockton came from, because it explains exactly what we do today.
The Town the Railroad Built and the Stock Yards Beside It
Stockton is the youngest village in Jo Daviess County, and it owes its very existence to the railroad.
In 1886 the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad chose a spot in Stockton Township to build a depot, and just like that, a town was conceived. Crews graded the roadbed in the spring of 1887, surveyors platted the streets that May, and the first freight train rolled in that October.
Here’s the part that matters to a cattle farm: when that depot went up in the fall of 1887, the stock yards went up right beside it. Those pens were where farmers from all across these hills loaded their cattle onto railcars — cars that ran east down a line stretching all the way from Chicago out to Oelwein, Iowa.
From little Stockton, local beef rolled toward the great Chicago stockyards that fed the whole nation. That railroad (soon the Chicago Great Western) was the lifeblood of the town.
By 1912 it employed as many as 400 people here and built “East Stockton” as a hub between Chicago and Iowa. It’s even why Stockton landed on the map for cheese: when J.L. Kraft opened his very first cheese factory here in 1914, he picked Stockton partly because the rail line made it so easy to ship his goods out.
Cattle, milk, cheese — for generations, this was a town that fed the country and sent it east by rail.
From Cattle Cars to Your Chest Freezer
More than a century ago, Stockton’s whole reason for being was getting Midwest beef to Chicago families. That hasn’t changed at Nadig Farms… there’s just no more railcar.
Today the cattle still make the trip toward Chicago. But instead of riding a freight train to a stockyard, our beef goes straight from our pasture to your family’s freezer.
No middleman, no mystery — just honest beef raised by a family you can actually drive out and meet.
It’s the same job Stockton has always done. We’re just doing it the modern way: one family, one farm, feeding Chicagoland a freezer at a time.
One Mile North of Stockton. Right On Your Way to Galena
If you’re a Chicagoland family, there’s a good chance you already drive right past us. Stockton sits on U.S. Route 20, the road thousands of travelers take every year on their way out to Galena, and the village is known as the “Gateway to Jo Daviess County” for exactly that reason.
Stockton sits right up on the ridge at the edge of the Driftless Area — a natural stopping point coming or going.
We’re one mile north of all that. So whether you’re heading to Galena for a weekend or coming home from one, picking up your beef from Nadig Farms is barely a detour.
Quarter, Half, and Whole Beef Shares for Chicagoland Families
The best way to stock your freezer with real, local beef is to buy a share of the animal. We offer quarter, half, and whole beef shares. You get a mix of everything: steaks, roasts, ground beef, and the cuts that big grocery stores rarely carry.
It’s the most affordable way to eat prime-comparable beef all year, and you’ll know the single farm and family it came from.
Stock Your Freezer with Stockton Beef
Quarter, half, and whole shares — raised one mile north of Stockton, easy to grab on your way to Galena.
Reserve Your Share →Why Joining the Chamber Matters to Us
The Stockton Chamber of Commerce exists to help local businesses grow and to keep this community thriving: supporting neighbors, events, and the small downtown that makes Stockton, Stockton.
Putting our name on the member roll is our way of saying we’re invested in the next chapter of Stockton’s story, the same way our family has been part of the last one.
So whether you’re a longtime neighbor or a Chicagoland family passing through on the way to Galena, we’d love for you to stop and say hello — and taste what a century of Stockton cattle country tastes like.
