Butte County Biographies

GEORGE W. GRIDLEY

Submitted by Betty Wilson

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


	GEORGE W. GRIDLEY was born in Cazenovia, New York, on the tenth day of 
August, 1818.  At the age of fifteen he went west to live with his relatives, 
spending a few years in Bloomington, Illinois, with his uncle, Asahel Gridley.  
He afterwards went to Chicago, where he carried on quite a successful business 
auctioneering.  In 1843, he removed to Galena, Illinois, engaging in the same 
occupation, and also embarking in the livery Business.  On the first of March, 
1846, he was united in marriage to Helen D. Orcutt, a native of Troy, New York.  
In 1850, Mr. Gridley left Galena, cross the plains to California, and settled in 
Sacramento, where he still continued auctioneering.  While there, he narrowly 
escaped death from cholera.  He returned overland to Illinois in 1852, to visit 
his family, which he had left there, but in the spring of 1853 began the 
overland trip again towards the setting sun, bringing with him a band of sheep, 
and leaving his family in Illinois.  He settled four miles north of the Butte 
mountains, in Butte county.  In 1855, he sent for his family, meeting Mrs. 
Gridley and their son Charlie at Auburn, upon their arrival, and brought them to 
his home.  In time, Mr. Gridley became one of the wealthiest men of the county, 
owning a large and productive tract of land.  He engaged heavily in 
sheep-raising for many years, and was remarkably successful.  On the ninth of 
March, 1881, he died, leaving a family of seven children, six of whom were born 
in California, all of them now living.  Mr. Gridley was a very generous and 
public-spirited man, and his death was regretted by all.
 
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present 
Time - Vol. II -  Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San 
Francisco, Cal., 1882.