Gridley History

Gridley was established in 1870 when the California and Oregon Railroad was constructed north from Marysville. The railroad reached Chico on July 2, 1870.

The town site was named for George W. Gridley, a wool grower and grain farmer who at the time was one of the three or four largest landowners in Butte County.

It was located at the place where Gridley convinced the railroad company to build a side track he could use to load his wool and grain on to rail cars for shipment to market.

According to a news report at the time in the Marysville Standard, the "switch at Gridley's Station" was constructed during mid-July, 1870. However, only about a third of the original town site was located on land acquired by the railroad from George W. Gridley.

The legend on the original town site map, which is dated September 10, 1870, states it was surveyed by Charles Cadwalader for the Contract and Finance Company, a construction firm that was affiliated with the Central Pacific Railroad, which by then owned the C&O Railroad.

Early description of Gridley portray the town site as situated amid an oak forest, which extended along the west side of the Feather River north from Marysville-Yuba City area.

A post office was established in Gridley on September 22, 1870. The first postmaster was L.C. Stone, who had built the first home and store in the new town. He was followed by James Price, who opened the town's first saloon, and W.R. Rogers, who set up a blacksmith and wagon shop.

On March 1, 1871, Stone was appointed the railroad's first station agent here. Soon after, warehouses were erected to store grain awaiting shipment on the railroad.

The town's first hotel, the St. Lawrence House, later known as the Gridley Hotel, was built by John Mumby and opened on May 2, 1871.

A school district was established for Gridley in 1873 and the first school house was built the following year. It opened on November 2, 1874 with V.P. Richards as teacher.

A flour fill was established by the Hamilton Mill Company in 1875. It began operations about the first of September. The town's first brick building were erected in 1877.

The town's first newspaper, The Gridley Herald, got out its first edition on Oct 29, 1880 and has not missed publishing an issue since that date.

Like many rural towns that lacked adequate water systems during their formative years, Gridley experienced several destructive fires.

A fire department was organized in 1877 and purchased a small hand pumper. This step was prompted by a disastrous fire that destroyed the American Hotel and other businesses. The department was reorganized in 1891 following two major fires and bought a used Amoskeag steam pumper which was at least 25 years old.

Gridley's worst fire occurred the night of July 9, 1905 and got out of hand because the old steam pumper malfunctioned. This blaze destroyed most of the original Stone Block as well as the Gridley Livery Stable and several other business building south of Hazel Street between Virginia and Kentucky Streets.

As a result of this fire, Gridley residents voted on November 16, 1905 to incorporate their town as a city in order to establish municipal water works and improve the fire department.

Meanwhile, the burned out district was quickly rebuilt, the impetus being provided by the activities of the Butte County Canal Company, which had completed its 23 mile long irrigation canal to Irrigated Land Company, which was subdividing large, dry-farmed ranches into small holdings which came to be known as the the Gridley Colonies.

Among the newcomers attracted to these Colonies were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who came here from Idaho.

The City of Gridley acquired its own electric power distribution system in 1910 by buying a home-owned company that had been furnishing electricity to the community since 1897.