As Tazewell County approaches our Bicentennial in April of 2027, current Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman and former County Clerk Christie A. Webb will be honoring and recognizing the previous 22 community leaders to have held this position. The office of Tazewell County Clerk was the first Countywide Office established on April 10, 1827.

Each month on the 10th as we approach the Bicentennial we will be placing a floral wreath from The Greenhouse Flower Shoppe in Pekin at the gravesite of these 22 individuals. This is the sixth in this series of twenty-two recognitions. Additionally, we will share the biographies and signatures of these county government leaders, thanks to the research to Susan Rynerson of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society and Jared Olar of the Pekin Public Library. Please join us as we build momentum for the historic Tazewell County Bicentennial by honoring and recognizing these tremendous individuals.

This month we recognize the Tazewell County Clerk during the Civil War years, John Gridley Sr., 1853 - 1865, of the Democratic Political Party.

John Gridley Sr was born about 1808 in Dutchess County, New York, to John and Anna Horton Gridley. He married Elizabeth Athey on June 17th, 1835, in Washington County, Ohio. He and his wife moved on to Pekin about 1837.

In 1838, John Gridley was Pekin City Assessor and then Pekin City Clerk from 1839 to 1841. He was postmaster in 1850, Pekin City Treasurer from 1849 to 1862, Tazewell County Clerk from 1853 to 1865, Tazewell County Treasurer in 1867, and Pekin City Clerk for three months in 1867. He was 45 years old when elected Tazewell County Clerk.

John and Eliza had four children: James (1836-1908), Harlan (1841-1898), John Jr (1843-1923), and Adaline (1848-1888). The family home was on Elizabeth Street, three doors west of Second Street. Sons Harlan and John Jr both served in the Civil War.

John Gridley Sr. died in Pekin on January 2nd, 1874, and is presumed to be buried next to his wife, Eliza, who had died prior to the 1860 census in an unmarked spot in Oak Grove Cemetery in Pekin.

As John Gridley Sr was buried in an unmarked grave, the Tazewell County Clerk Bicentennial Wreath was placed at the Civil War Veterans Monument in Lakeside Cemetery.