State Historical Society of Missouri

WILFLEY, Xenophon Pierce, a Senator from Missouri; born near Mexico, Audrain County, Mo., March 18, 1871; attended the country schools; graduated from Clarksburg College in 1891 and from Central College, at Fayette, in 1894; taught in Central College one year and in Sedalia High School for three years; graduated from the Washington University Law School at St. Louis, Mo., in 1899 and commenced practice in that city; chairman of the board of election commissioners of St. Louis 1917-1918; appointed on April 30, 1918, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William J. Stone and served from April 30, to November 5, 1918, when a successor was elected; unsuccessful candidate for the nomination to fill the vacancy in 1918; chairman, Committee on Industrial Expositions (Sixty-fifth Congress); resumed the practice of his profession; president of the Missouri Bar Association in 1925; died in St. Louis, Mo., May 4, 1931; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery.