Born at Lansingburg, NY, Mayor Filley attended law school before coming to St. Louis as a clerk in the chinaware business of his close relatives, E. A. and S. R. Filley. Five years later he was made a partner in the company. He married Miss Anna Adams of Lansingburg in 1855.

His family had been Democrats, but he supported Whig and Republican candidates in most elections. During the Civil War he was a strong unionist. He attended the Republican National Convention, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860. He served as a delegate to the convention that renominated Lincoln at Baltimore in 1864. The local Republican-Emancipation Convention nominated him for mayor in 1863 and he was elected.

Mr. Filley continued to be active in Republican politics for many years following his illness that required him to resign from City Hall. In 1868 he was an elector on the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential ticket. From 1868 until 1892 he was a delegate to every Republican National Convention. Also in 1868 he became a member of the Missouri Republican Party Central Committee. In 1876 he was made chairman of the State Republican Committee, a position he held during most of the years between 1876 and 1898. He was Missouri´s representative on the Republican National Committee from 1876 to 1892.

Mr. Filley continued to live in the St. Louis area until his death in 1923, at the age of 93. Interment was in Bellefontaine Cemetery.