11:46 AM

Click Image to Enlarge- As Promised I’ve downloaded the description of the Excelsior Stove Works and lithograph from my copy of the St. Louis Sketch Book 1858. The litho was one of the folded sheets in the Sketch book and was probably drawn after an earlier expansion of the foundry. It’s huge and next to the steamboat landing. Mr. A. M’Lean [McLean]  drew this lithograph you see above, from a sketch from the man who designed the pattern molds for the firm- possibly the same man who made the molds sent to Troy, NY. Mr.M'Lean includes Mr. Filley in his drawing- who is shaking hands with another happy customer.

This Moulder & Founder's Guide 1851 explains in great detail the how and why of the manufacturing business. I ran out of time, but if time grew on trees I would have scanned the pages how Bells were manufactured. Sorry....it kills me too! 

The Filley family must have taken a great deal of country storekeeper's money because they sold their manufactured goods and imported wares (China, Glass, sotves & tinware) as the Kennedy St Louis City Directory 1860 shows-


FILLEY CHAUNCEY I., imp. and dealers in china and queensware, 108 N. Main, bds. 1783 Locust
Filley E.A. & S.R., (Edward A. and Samuel R.), china and glass, 133 N. Main
Filley Edward A., (E.A. and S.R. Filley), r. 304 Olive
FILLEY GILES F., stove mfr., 155 and 157 N. Main and 401 N. Main, r. 36 N. 8th
Filley Oliver B., (Gerard B. Allen & Co.), r. 76 N. 6th
Filley Oliver D., tin plate and sheet iron, 129 N. Main and Mayor of St. Louis, r. 76 N. 6th
Last night, I was the high bidder on Ebay for a letter written by Giles F Filley that I can’t wait to receive- because he writes to a relative in Bloomfield Connecticut about his St Louis foundry that has been open only a year saying, "Our People here have been much disappointed in business this spring except perhaps the outfitting of California Emigrants. Ithis part of the country almost every available man has gone.." 
I know many were leaving the city due to the California Gold Rush, but other fled due to the the Cholera epidemic. Just like today, travelers can spread infection- but unlike then, they had no idea exactly what caused it and how it was transmitted. Deaths were listed as Cholera, Cholera Inflamination, Inflamination of the brain, Diarrhea et al. click image to enlarge
The St Louis Genealogical Society has an index of those who died in 1849 during this epidemic and from June 1849 to the end of the year, 5,000 deaths occurred in St Louis. You can see this listing online at St Louis Genealogical Society 
Filley Samuel R., (E.A. & S.R. Filley), r. 2 Kingshighway b. Olive and St. Charles Rd
 I was surprised my favorite “Go to” site for medical info had a description of the disease. Mayo Clinic Cholera says,
"Cholera is a bacterial disease usually spread through contaminated water. Cholera causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. Left untreated, cholera can be fatal in a matter of hours." 
Next Week's Blog- Nicholas Springer's Will- He died a rich man!