Oliver Filley

Oliver Dwight Filley (May 23, 1806August 21, 1881) was an American businessman, abolitionist, and politician who served as the 16th mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, from 1858 to 1861. Early life 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, who all became prominent. Career 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. Mayor of St. Louis 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,. 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.