Alfred V. du Pont

Alfred Victor Philadelphe du Pont de Nemours (April 11, 1798 – October 4, 1856) was French American chemist and industrialist, who was the eldest son and successor of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.

Early life and family

Du Pont was born in Paris, son of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont and Sophie Madeleine Dalmas du Pont. He came to the United States in 1800 as an infant and grew up around the gunpowder mills founded by his father on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware. Later he attended Mount Airy College,   in Germantown, Pennsylvania and then studied chemistry at Dickinson College. While there he was president of Belles Lettres Literary Society and became a friend of one of his professors, Thomas Cooper. He later became Cooper's assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. Du Pont married American Margaretta Elizabeth "Molly" La Motte (or Lammot) in 1824; they had seven children.

E.I. du Pont Company

In 1818, du Pont returned home to help his father rebuild the gunpowder company after a disastrous explosion that killed 33 people and injured his mother. He worked closely with the men in the mills and was particularly interested in researching new gunpowder chemical developments. The laboratory was his home. However, after spending nearly 20 years as a "powderman," and after a reorganization of the partnership by James Antoine Bidermann, he became head of the company in 1837. It was a difficult role for him, and after leading the company through a recovery from a disastrous mill explosion in 1847, he retired in poor health in 1850.

Death and legacy

Alfred du Pont died October 4, 1856 at Eleutherian Mills, near Greenville, Delaware, and is buried in the du Pont de Nemours Cemetery near Greenville.

His son, Alfred Victor du Pont, would become a founding father of Phi Kappa Sigma in 1850.

See also

• Du Pont family for other family members and relationships
• Hagley Museum and Library

References

• du Pont, Pierre S. (1942). Genealogy of the du Pont Family 1739-1942. Wilmington: Hambleton Printing & Publishing.
• Dutton, William S. (1942). Du Pont, One Hundred and Forty Years. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.