Eleuthere Irenee du Pont

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours
Founder E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Born	June 24 1771(1771-06-24) Paris, France
Died	October 31 1834 (aged 63) Greenville, Delaware
Residence	Eleutherian Mills, Greenville, Delaware
Spouse(s)	Sophie Madeleine Dalmas
Children	Victorine Elizabeth du Pont Lucille du Pont Evelina Gabrielle du Pont Alfred V. du Pont Eleuthera du Pont Sophie Madeleine du Pont Henry du Pont Alexis Irénée du Pont
Parents	Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours Nicole Charlotte Marie Louise Le Dée de Rencourt
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Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (June 24, 1771 – October 31, 1834), known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born American chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the Du Pont family, were one of America's richest and most prominent families in the 19th and 20th centuries. Irénée du Pont's business had a major impact on American affairs in the 19th century, a legacy which contributes historic richness to his country and his home state of Delaware.

Early life and family

Irnee was born in 1771 in Paris to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and Nicole Charlotte Marie Louise Le Dée de Rencourt. They were a distinguished family in France with connections to Louis XVI, Thomas Jefferson, and French chemistry researcher Lavoisier. When only a teenager, though du Pont did not care for other studies, he showed tremendous interest in gunpowder and engaged in much independent research. In fact, at age 14 he entered the Royal College in Paris and worked as an apprentice with Lavoisier in manufacturing gunpowder for the government. In addition, Lavoisier lent much knowledge of botanty and agriculture which became a passion of du Pont that continued throughout his life and even advised people on in his later years. A few years later, after du Pont left his apprencticeship and lost his connection to government gunpowder manufacture, he began to manage his father's publishing house. At this time, du Pont met Sophie Madeleine Dalmas who he became determined to marry. Only after much persistance and even offering to fight in two duels for her hand in marriage did her father agree. They were finally married in 1791, and came to have eight children.

Like his father, he was initially a supporter of the French Revolution. However, both were among those who physically defended King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from a mob besieging the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the insurrection of August 10, 1792. After his father narrowly escaped the guillotine and the family house was sacked by a mob in 1797 during the events of 18 Fructidor, the entire family left for the United States in 1799. They hoped (but failed) to create a model community of French émigrés. Arriving with his family in America in 1800, du Pont established his home Eleutherian Mills on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

Irnee found on a hunting trip one day that gunpowder in America was not only ineffective but also very expensive. After further investigation, he came to realize that the Unites States' need for better powder created an excellent market for the kind of quality gunpowder he had worked with in France. With help from Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, du Pont urged his family into beginning the famed gunpowder company in his home on Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, Delaware in 1802. He used capital and gunpowder machinery imported from France and brought an expertise in chemistry and gunpowder making during a time when the quality of American made gunpowder was very poor. Beginning as a gunpowder manufacturer, the company grew quickly, and by the time of du Pont's death in 1834, it ranked among the largest of American companies in existence. By the mid nineteenth century, it had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military supplying as much as half of the gunpowder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War. The company remains very successful today even 200 years later, having diversified to manufacture several industrial products including chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers.

Death and legacy

Éleuthère Irénée du Pont died of cholera on October 31, 1834 at the Eleutherian Mills, near Greenville, Delaware. The company he founded would become one of the largest and most successful American corporations. His sons, Alfred V. du Pont (1798–1856) and Henry du Pont (1812–1889), were its managers in the years after his death.

The site of his gunpowder mill in Delaware was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The Hagley Museum and Library was also created along the banks of the Brandywine River. It is a nonprofit educational institution that includes the first du Pont family home and garden in the United States, the powder yards, and a nineteenth-century machine shop. On the hillside below the mansion lies a Renaissance-Revival garden, with terraces and statuary, created by Louise Evalina du Pont Crowninshield (1877-1958) in the 1920s. The Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation was formed in 1954, and the museum opened to the public in 1957.

In 1822, du Pont was made a director of the Bank of the United States and recevied many inquiries on matters of agriculture and industry. In 1833, he refused to sell gunpowder to the South Carolina Nullifiers, 125,000 lbs. or $24,000 worth, an act of allegiance to the government.

The du Pont family led 60 men to guard the king and his palace on the night of August 10, 1792. Nonetheless, the king and even du Pont's great teacher and friend, Antoine Lavoisier, fell victim to the guillotine.

New Title new company

President of Du Pont 1802 – October 31, 1834

Succeeded by: Alfred V. du Pont

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Colby, Gerald. Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.ISBN 0132210770
• du Pont, B.G., E. I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company: A History 1802 To 1902. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1417916850
• du Pont, Pierre S., Genealogy of the Du Pont Family 1739-1942. Wilmington: Hambleton Printing & Publishing, 1942.
• Dutton, William S. Du Pont, One Hundred and Fifty Years. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1942.
• Winkler, John K. The du Pont Dynasty. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1935.

External links

• Bio at the Du Pont company website. Retrieved December 19, 2007.
• Hagley Museum and Library Hagley.org. Retrieved December 19, 2007.

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