Gridley is a village in McLean County, Illinois, United States.

Bloomington, the McLean county seat, is 22 miles (35 km) to the south.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Gridley has a total area of 1.23 square miles (3.19 km2), all land.

In addition to the 100-foot-wide (30 m) strip granted to the railroad, there were long narrow rectangles on both the north and south sides of the tracks.

In most cases these areas, usually labeled "Depot Grounds", have evolved into parks or been put to other public uses.

At Gridley, half of the northern Depot Ground was dedicated as a long narrow "Public Square".

The remainder of the town was a fairly conventional grid of north-south and east-west streets.

Gridley then surprised everyone by announcing that he was re-platting the entire town and subdividing the land near the railroad.

He argued that although the plat did say "depot grounds" he had never actually dedicated the land to the railroad or to public use.

It became an important legal precedent and left a long legacy of local bitterness toward Gridley.

Charles Cochrane George Washington Kent, the town's co-founder, moved to Gridley.

There was a brief setback in 1858 when a tornado swept through the town, damaging Cochrane's and Kent's house and twisting the newly laid rails, but growth quickly resumed.

Water was pumped from several cisterns and then hoses were run to the flooded pit of the tile factory.

All of the able bodied people in town, and many from the surrounding countryside, joined in the fire fighting effort.

Striking railway workers had attempted to shut down the Toledo Peoria and Western Railroad.

In response the railroad loaded a train with fourteen workers and four armed guards who were tasked with keeping the tracks open.

Striking workers followed the train in automobiles, driving along U.S. Route 24, which paralleled the tracks.

For example, in 1937 the old clay pits from the tile factory were bought by the town for use as a skating rink,[19] and in 2001 the Gridley Telephone Museum opened.