Lexington: Named Twice, for Two Different Places

Lexington, Illinois was platted on January fourth, eighteen thirty-six, by two men who couldn't even agree on which Lexington they were honoring. Asahel Gridley was a lawyer from Bloomington who would grow very wealthy; his partner James Brown had come up from Kentucky. Gridley had ties to Lexington, Massachusetts, birthplace of the Revolution.

Brown had lived near Lexington, Kentucky, heart of the Bluegrass. So they named the town Lexington, and tradition says each had a different Lexington in mind. The town was laid out around a central public square during a real estate boom that swept the Midwest that year, but it didn't truly fill in until the first train arrived on July fourth, eighteen fifty-four, bringing the grain trade with it.

The square is still there.