Gridley is a village in McLean County, Illinois, United States. The population consisted of 1,432 people at the end of the 2010 census. It is part of the Bloomington–Normal Metropolitan Statistical Area.Gridley is located on U.S. Route 24 about 7 miles east of El Paso. It is also about that distance west of Chenoa. Gridley is about halfway between Interstate 39 and Interstate 55. The village of Gridley was founded in 1869 and named after General Asahel 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.