Founding year: the first Gridley Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1869.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gridley Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gridley Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gridley Township’s overall grade.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Gridley Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1869 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Gridley Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Gridley was laid out on November 25, 1856, by Thomas Carlyle (c. 1832 - ?) and George Washington Kent (1820–1901). After considering the names "Kent", "Carlyle", and "Gardner", for the governor of Massachusetts, it was decided to name the town for Bloomington banker, lawyer, and land developer Asahel Gridley (1810–1881). Both Carlyle and Thomas were working for Gridley at the time the town was founded, and two years after the town was laid out Gridley purchased all of it. Along with many other towns in central Illinois, the town was established when the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad crossed the state from west to east. The railroad soon became the Toledo Peoria and Western.
and John B. Messer arrived in 1833 and 1834. Messer had previously lived at Lexington and was a great hunter. He had given names to Turkey Creek and Buck Creek from the kind of game he had found along the streams. Loving Creek, in south Gridley Township was named for one of the Loving Brothers. After the first settlers came, Gridley did not get many new inhabitants until along in the '50's, most of the settlements being along the edge of the Mackinaw timber. The Mackinaw River runs for five miles through the township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
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Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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The Gridley Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1869.
How does Gridley Township rank for history?
Gridley Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Gridley Township?
23% of Gridley Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1965.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia, the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
