Gridley, Illinois

City: Gridley

County: McLean

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.7333, -88.8667

The village of Gridley in McLean County was platted in 1856 and a U.S. Post Office was established the following year. Its location was selected due to being along the proposed Peoria and Oquawka Railroad. Gridley was named in honor of Asahel Gridley, whose land the village organizers had purchased for the site of the community. It is located eight miles from the town of Chenoa. Gridley was incorporated as a town in 1869.

Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 147; Jacob L. Hasbrouck, History of McLean County Illinois (Topeka, KS: Historical, 1924), 1:104; The History of McLean County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 557-64; “An Act to Incorporate the Town of Gridley,” 1 April 1869, Private Laws of Illinois (1869), 3:776-82.