, founder of the du Pont business dynasty.
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was the son of a Parisian watchmaker and a member of a
Burgundian Huguenot family. On his mother's side, he was a descendant of a minor
noble family. In 1800, he and his sons,
Victor Marie du Pont and
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, migrated from France to the United States. He used the resources of their Huguenot heritage to found one of the most prominent of American families, and one of its most successful
corporations,
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, initially established by Éleuthère Irénée as a gunpowder manufacturer. In 1802, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont established a
gunpowder mill on the banks of the
Brandywine River near
Wilmington, Delaware. The location, named
Eleutherian Mills, provided all the necessities to operate the mill: a water flow sufficient to power it, available timber (mainly
willow trees) that could be turned into
charcoal fine enough to use for gunpowder, and close proximity to the
Delaware River to allow for shipments of
sulfur and
saltpeter, the other ingredients used in the manufacture of gunpowder. There were also nearby stone quarries to provide needed building materials. Over time, the
Du Pont company grew into the largest black powder manufacturing firm in the world. The family remained in control of the company up to the 1960s, and family trusts still own a substantial amount of the company's stock. This and other companies run by the du Pont family employed up to 10 percent of Delaware's population at its peak. In the 19th century, the Du Pont family maintained their family wealth by carefully arranged marriages between
cousins which, at the time, was the norm for many families. The family played a large part in politics during the 18th and 19th centuries and assisted in negotiations for the
Treaty of Paris and the
Louisiana Purchase. Both
T. Coleman and
Henry A. du Pont served as U.S. senators.
Pierre S. du Pont, IV served as Governor of Delaware. The family has played an important role in historic preservation and land conservation, including helping to found the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, preserving President
James Madison's home
Montpelier, and establishing numerous museums such as
Winterthur and the
Delaware Museum of Natural History. The Brandywine Conservancy, founded by family member
George Alexis Weymouth, owns around of land in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and owns permanent conservation easements on an additional . In 2013,
Lammot du Pont Copeland's
Mt. Cuba Center contributed over $20 million to purchase land for donation to the federal government, to form the
First State National Historical Park. Beginning with
William du Pont, Jr. and his sister,
Marion duPont Scott, many members of the Du Pont family have been involved in the breeding and racing of
thoroughbred racehorses, as well as establishing racehorse venues and training tracks, including Delaware Park and Fair Hill, Maryland. While most Du Ponts are members of the
Episcopal Church,
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont was a
Huguenot. ==Spelling of the name==