Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer ; however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers.

However the plan used was virtually identical to that used at Fairbury, including the street names, and very similar to that used at Gridley, El Paso and other places along the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad.

The plan used was virtually identical to that at Chatsworth Illinois, including the street names, and the plan very similar to that at Gridley and El Paso on the same railroad.

When Forrest was established the Toledo Peoria and Western Railroad had already been in operation for almost ten years and therefore, the origin of the town is unlike Fairbury, Chatsworth, Chenoa, Gridley and El Paso, all of which were founded when the railroad was first built.

The village of Gridley was founded in 1869 and named after General Asahel Gridley ( or Ashael Gridley ), a noted early Republican, land investor, political backer and client of Abraham Lincoln, and a descendant of a Colonel Gridley who served at the Battle of Lexington.

After considering the names Kent, Carlyle, and Gardner, for the governor of Massachusetts, it was decided to name named the town for Bloomington banker, lawyer, and land developer Asahel Gridley ( 1810 – 1881 ).

Both Carlisle 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 Gridley.

At Gridley, half of the northern Depot Ground was dedicated as a long narrow “ Public Square .” The remaining “ Depot Grounds " would soon cause problems for the town.

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

The early growth of Gridley was rapid.

At Gridley the train stopped and a gun battle erupted, when it was over two workers were dead and three wounded.

However, for the most part Gridley was peaceful, with a flourishing civic life.

Until Washington's arrival, it remained under the command of Artemas Ward, while John Thomas acted as executive officer and Richard Gridley commanded the artillery corps and was chief engineer.

Four nineteenth-century buildings have been demolished: Gridley Hall ( 1882 ) was the main women's dormitory for many years, and was demolished in 1967 for construction of the Music and Drama Center.

At first glance the Original Town of Gridley looks like many towns laid out along new railroads built in central Illinois in the 1850s.

Gridley is located on U. S. Route 24 about east of El Paso.

By that time the railroad and private individuals had built on the railroad grounds and the people of Gridley had used them as a location for the town jail.

One of the more tragic episodes in Gridley ’ s history took place on 3 September 1946.

The couple had six children: Julia Romana Howe ( 1844 – 1886 ) married Michael Anagnos, a Greek scholar who succeeded Dr. Howe as director of the Perkins Institute ; Florence Marion Howe ( 1845 – 1922 ), an author, she wrote a well-known treatise on manners and was married to lawyer David Prescott Hall ; Henry Marion Howe ( 1848 – 1922 ), a metallurgist who lived in New York ; Laura Elizabeth Howe ( 1850 – 1943 ), a Pulitzer prize-winning author, she was married to Henry Richards and lived in Maine ; Maud Howe ( 1855 – 1948 ), a Pulitzer prize-winning author, she was married to an English muralist and illustrator, John Elliott ; Samuel Gridley Howe, Jr. ( 1858 – 1863 ).

He married on June 30, 1866, Jane Lawrence Churchill, the daughter of Timothy Gridley Churchill and Patience Lawrence.

Gridley was born in Logansport, Indiana on 24 November 1844.

Reporting for duty with his class in September 1863, Gridley joined the sloop-of-war Oneida with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and distinguished himself with David Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864.

From 1871 to 1875, Gridley was stationed on the only United States Navy ship based on the Great Lakes at the time, the USS Michigan, at Erie, Pennsylvania.

Captain Gridley took command of, Admiral George Dewey's famous flagship on 27 April 1898.

During the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898, Dewey gave his famous command, " You may fire when you are ready, Gridley ," immortalizing the captain.

* April 1-Construction begins in Massachusetts on the Granite Railway, one of the first railroads in North America, under the direction of Gridley Bryant.

* Ross Winans patents the 8-wheel railroad car, but the patent is soon disputed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad who call on Gridley Bryant as an expert witness.

Kirsch unsuccessfully challenged Forever Hooligans ( Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero ) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on August 26 at a Sacramento Wrestling Federation ( SWF ) event in Gridley, California.

To get the cut slabs to a wharf on the Neponset River, a distance of two and three-quarters miles, the first commercial railway in the United States was built — the Granite Railway -- over which, on the morning of October 7, 1826, the first horse-drawn cars passed, under the direction of a young engineer by the name of Gridley Bryant.

One day a boy named Keith Gridley and his family visit the hotel on their way through California.

Samuel Gridley Howe ( November 10, 1801 – January 9, 1876 ) was a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind.

Charles Vernon Gridley ( 24 November 1844 – 5 June 1898 ) was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

In November 1861, Clarke was in Washington, D. C. with Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe.

John Adams took to heart the advice given him by his legal mentor, Jeremiah Gridley, to `` pursue the study of the law, rather than the gain of it ''.

Knox bolstered his own case by writing to Adams that Richard Gridley, the older leader of the artillery under Ward, was disliked by his men and in poor health.

", and a quote by General Washington: " I know of no man better fitted to be Chief Engineer than General Gridley.

" The whole monument is surmounted by a cannon in the imitation of " Hancock " or " Adams ,"-one of the guns Gridley served with his own hands at Bunker Hill.

He served as a New York City District attorney, and then later as General Counsel for E. H. Harriman, which later became the Union Pacific Railroad, president of two ( 2 ) Windsor, VT banks, and the chief financial backer of the Gridley Automatic Lathe ( manufactured by the Windsor Machine Co .).

Louis Gridley Wu, a fictional character, is the main protagonist in the Ringworld series of books, written by Larry Niven.

The Fernald Center, originally called the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children, was founded by reformer Samuel Gridley Howe in 1848 with a $ 2, 500 appropriation from the Massachusetts State Legislature.

He was assigned as a lieutenant of artillery to the Massachusetts line commanded by Colonel Richard Gridley, the Continental Army's first Chief Engineer and artillery commander, in 1775.

* 1826 Mar 4: The Granite Railway in Massachusetts was incorporated by Thomas Handasyd Perkins and Gridley Bryant.

One night he is spotted by Keith's mother, and Mr. Gridley thinks she is imagining things, but she is still sure that she saw a mouse riding a motorcycle.

The shopping area built at Gridley Road and South Street was developed by Ernest M. Hahn, Inc. in September 1971 with the Phase I opening of the corridor from The Broadway department store ( currently Macy's ) to Ohrbach's ( currently a Forever 21 ) in addition to having an initial 150 specialty stores.

Designed by Arthur Gilman and Gridley James Fox Bryant, architects for the Old Boston City Hall, its exterior was inspired by St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

The John Tucker Daland House ( 1851 – 1852 ) is an imposing, Italianate house designed by architect Gridley James Fox Bryant.