Founding year: the first Gridley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1869.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gridley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gridley is more historic than 42% 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’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’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 (±5.4 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’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.
The History of McLean County, Illinois1879 · page 558Read the page →
Read the text
The first commercial venture engaged in to make Gridley a " shipping point" was the cutting and baling of several hundred tons of prairie-hay. It proved reasonably successful. The grain trade has been, since 1859, the principal commercial business of Gridley. During the earlier years, it was principally wheat. There were no warehouses to hold the grain for shipment, and the grain was shoveled directly into the cars, that is, all that did not scatter on the ground. This was a wasteful method, and men began putting up small buildings to hold a carload or two. When the load was procured for the car and a car could be secured for the load, the grain was carried out in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The History of McLean County, Illinois1879 · page 553Read the page →
Read the text
The same fall John Slown came into the little settlement on the Mackinaw. He was of Irish descent, and came here from Kentucky, and still lives in Gridley. He is the oldest resident now living in the town. He rented some land and worked in sawmills for a few years. There was no mill on the stream at that time above Kappa, but others were soon built. The nearest mills where grinding could be done were at Peoria and Kankakee. When they took their grists to mill, they were obliged to take their turn ; and it often required two or three days to grind out what was ahead of them. The land was not in market then, but came into market the following year.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of McLean County, Illinois1924 · page 99Read the page →
Read the text
Asahel Gridley and Merritt Covell laid out the village of Leroy in 1835, but owing to hard times it made slow progress the first few years. In 1838 Edgar Concklin built a frame store and next year a post route was established with Hiram Buck as postmaster. The route ran from t
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.
Timeline
Gridley, 1857 to 1913
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Gridley post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1869.
How does Gridley rank for history?
Gridley is more historic than 42% 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?
22% of Gridley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1968.
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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), 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.
