Oliver Filley

Filley was born on May 23, 1806, in Bloomfield, Connecticut. He was the eldest of six children, five sons and one daughter, born to Oliver Filley and Annis (née Humphrey) Filley. His siblings included Marcus Lucius Filley, Jay Humphrey Filley, Joseph Earl Filley, Giles Franklin Filley, Jennette Annis Filley and John Eldridge Filley,{{cite book |last1=Adler |first1=Jeffrey S. |title=Yankee Merchants and the Making of the Urban West: The Rise and Fall of Antebellum St Louis |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521522359 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fd9R4yc1sEUC&pg=PA67 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Loomis |first1=Elias |title=The Descendants (by the Female Branches) of Joseph Loomis: Who Came from Braintree, England, in the Year 1638, and Settled in Windsor, Connecticut in 1639 |date=1880 |publisher=Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor |page=[https://archive.org/details/descendantsbyfe00loomgoog/page/n331 323] |url=https://archive.org/details/descendantsbyfe00loomgoog |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}} who all became prominent.{{cite book |last1=Southerton |first1=Donald G. |title=The Filleys: 350 Years of American Entrepreneurial Spirit |date=2005 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=9780595799558 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdKC_L-AB2IC&pg=PA72 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}

In 1829, Filley emigrated to St. Louis, Missouri. He ran a successful tinware business in St. Louis, eventually amassing a fortune and retired in 1873. He was a director of the Bank of the State of Missouri, and "subscribed largely" to the Kansas Pacific Railway. He contributed financially to Frank P. Blair's antislavery newspaper the St. Louis Union.

Originally, Filley was a "hard money Jackson Democrat" and a personal friend of Thomas H. Benton, the Democratic U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 who was a champion of westward expansion in the United States, a cause that became known as Manifest Destiny. During the time late 1840s when the Wilmot Proviso proposed to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War,.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4x4xEZZ_xsC |title=Lone Star: A history of Texas and the Texans|author=T. R. Fehrenbach|page=273 | isbn=978-0-306-80942-2 | year=2000 | publisher=Da Capo Press}} Filley declared himself in full support of Free Soil and the emancipation of Missouri, leading him to support Martin Van Buren in the presidential election of 1848. The Free Soil party was eventually absorbed into the Republican party.

He was the first Civil War mayor of St. Louis and he became the first mayor elected for a two-year term under the new City Charter of 1859.{{Cite web|title = St. Louis Historic Preservation|url = http://stlcin.missouri.org/history/peopledetail.cfm?Master_ID=965|website = stlcin.missouri.org|access-date = 2016-02-23}} He was reluctant to take the position.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMBVmdUygRMC|title=St. Louis: An Informal History of the City and Its People, 1764-1865|last=Ravenswaay|first=Charles Van|date=1991-01-01|publisher=Missouri History Museum|isbn=9780252019159|language=en}} As mayor, he headed the movement for arousing and consolidating union sentiment as the chairman for the Committee of Public Safety. The Fire Alarm Telegraph System was completed and put into use during his term in office.{{Cite web|title = Oliver Dwight Filley|url = http://exhibits.slpl.org/mayors/data/dt42815532.asp|website = exhibits.slpl.org|date = 2001-01-01|access-date = 2016-02-23|first = St. Louis Public|last = Library|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090107070539/http://exhibits.slpl.org/mayors/data/dt42815532.asp|archive-date = 2009-01-07}}

In 1835,{{cite book |title=Missouri Historical Society Collections |date=1906 |publisher=Missouri Historical Society |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixSRYcSxng4C&pg=PA47-IA44 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}} Filley was married to Chloe Velina Brown (1808–1890), the daughter of Eli Brown,{{cite book |last1=Stiles, M.D. |first1=Henry R. |title=The History of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut, VOLUME 2 ONLY |date=1859 |publisher=Heritage Books |isbn=9780788443855 |page=616 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86iw1ZqmN3AC&pg=PA616 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}} in Bloomfied, Connecticut.{{cite book |last1=Scharf |first1=John Thomas |title=History of Saint Louis City and County: From the Earliest Periods to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men |date=1883 |publisher=L. H. Everts |page=693 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RIg6AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA693 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}} In St. Louis, the family lived at 2201 Lucas Place and attended the Central Presbyterian Church. Together, they were the parents of six children, including:{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Richard |last2=Hopewell |first2=Merna |title=Edwards's Great West and Her Commercial Metropolis: Embracing a General View of the West and a Complete History of St. Louis, from the Landing of Ligueste, in 1764, to the Present Time ; with Portraits and Biographies of Some of the Old Settlers, and Many of the Most Prominent Business Men |date=1860 |publisher=Published at the Office of "Edwards's monthly" |page=[https://archive.org/details/edwardssgreatwes00edwa/page/517 517] |url=https://archive.org/details/edwardssgreatwes00edwa |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}

• Oliver Brown Filley (1836–1887), one of the proprietors of the Fulton Iron Works who married Mary McKinley.{{cite book |last1=Harvard College (1780-) Class of 1906 |title=Harvard College Class of 1906 Secretary's Third Report |date=1906 |publisher=Crimson Printing Company |page=462 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PMgnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA462 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• Ellen Filley (1841–1929), an Emma Willard School alumna who married Thomas Tilden Richards (1840–1881) in 1865.{{cite book |last1=Fairbanks |first1=Mary J. Mason |title=Emma Willard and Her Pupils: Or, Fifty Years of Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872 |date=1898 |publisher=Mrs. R. Sage |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924030634921/page/n575 480] |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924030634921 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• Maria Jeannette Filley (1843–1930), who married John Tilden Davis (1844–1894).{{cite book |last1=Harvard College (1780-) Class of 1900 |title=Harvard College Class of 1900 Fourth Report |date=1915 |publisher=Crimson Printing Company |page=111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9MonAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• Alice Filley (1845–1933), who married Robert Moore (1838–1922), a civil engineer.{{cite book |title=Social Register, St. Louis |date=1922 |publisher=Social Register Association |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etoyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA81 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• Henry Marcus Filley (1847–1902), Washington University in St. Louis graduate.{{cite book |title=A Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Washington University for the Academic Year. 1865-66 |date=1866 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6pGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA27 |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• Jeanette Filley (1850–1933), who married Isaac Wyman Morton (1847–1903) in 1877.{{cite book |title=The Bulletin |date=1958 |publisher=Missouri Historical Society |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSAUAAAAYAAJ |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}
• John Dwight Filley (1853–1930), the president of the American Manufacturing Company who married Fannie Douglass.{{cite book |last1=Howe |first1=Mark Antony De Wolfe |title=Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War Against Germany |date=1922 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=225–228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG4vAQAAIAAJ |access-date=23 July 2018 |language=en}}

Filley died on August 21, 1881, of acute kidney disease while vacationing in Hampton, New Hampshire.{{cite web |url=http://stlcin.missouri.org/history/peopledetail.cfm?Master_ID=965 |title=St. Louis Historic Preservation: Filley, Oliver D. |publisher=City of St. Louis |access-date=2008-08-21}} He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Through his eldest son Oliver, he was the grandfather of Oliver Dwight Filley (1883–1961),{{cite news |title=OLIVER FILLEY, 78, A RETIRED BROKER; Aide at Post & Fiagg From 1921 to 1942 Dies--Was Pilot in World War I |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/01/19/118014335.pdf |access-date=23 July 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=January 19, 1961 |language=en}} was a Harvard graduate and pilot who volunteered with the British Air Force during World War I (before America entered the War) and was married to Mary Percy Pyne (b. 1893), the daughter of Percy Rivington Pyne II, in 1917.{{cite news |last1=Foreman |first1=John |title=A Park Avenue Story |url=http://bigoldhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-park-avenue-story.html |access-date=23 July 2018 |work=BIG OLD HOUSES |date=18 February 2015}}{{cite news |title=MISS PYNE ENGAGED TO COL. O.D. FILLEY Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Percy R. Pyne to Wed U.S.A. Aviator Awarded Cross by British. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/12/02/102381645.pdf |access-date=23 July 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=December 2, 1917}}

Another grandson was Dwight Filley Davis (1879–1945), who served as the 49th United States Secretary of War from October 14, 1925, until March 4, 1929, in the administration of Calvin Coolidge and later as the Governor-General of the Philippines from 1929 until 1932.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Dwight Davis Dies. War Ex-Secretary. Member of Coolidge's Cabinet. First Soldier to Hold Post Since '69. New Deal Foe. Donor Of The Tennis Cup. Former Champion Himself, He Created International Trophy. Hero of First World War. Succeeded John W. Weeks. Twice Double Champion. Sold Progress in Philippines |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07E0D6173AEE3BBC4151DFB767838E659EDE&legacy=true |newspaper=New York Times }}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

• {{Find a Grave|18478}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090107070539/http://exhibits.slpl.org/mayors/data/dt42815532.asp Oliver D. Filley] at the St. Louis Public Library: St. Louis Mayors website.
• [http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/140832.html Oliver D. Filley] at Missouri History Museum.

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{{s-bef |before=Washington King}}

{{s-ttl |title=Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri |years=1858–1861}}

{{s-aft |after=Daniel G. Taylor}}

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{{Mayors of St. Louis}}

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Category:1806 births

Category:1881 deaths

Category:Mayors of St. Louis

Category:People from Bloomfield, Connecticut

Category:19th-century mayors of places in Missouri