Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Alfred Irenee DU PONT
Alfred Irenee duPont, the man remembered for "saving E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. for the duPont family," was a 43-year-old newlywed when he visited the site of the Fontanet disaster that killed at least 27 people in October 1907.
Founded in 1800 by Eleuthere Irenee duPont, Alfred's great-grandfather, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., America's largest explosives manufacturer, was wholly owned by the duPont family when Eugene duPont, chairman of the board, died in 1901.
The company's board of directors, including Alfred and several cousins, decided to sell the company to its biggest rival, Laflin & Rand Powder Co., for $12 million.
In March 1902, before the sale was consummated, Alfred had a change of heart, demanding the chance to buy the business for the same sum. He met resistance, but enlisted two cousins, Coleman and Pierre duPont -- neither active in the business -- as allies. The deal was concluded in a few days. Coleman duPont became president.
Once they owned the company, the three cousins ascertained that it was worth at least five times the $12 million price tag placed on it.
On Oct. 8, 1902, the duPonts bought Laflin & Rand Powder Co, including the Fontanet mill, and became the undisputed lord of the explosives industry with eight dynamite mills, 21 black powder works and two smokeless powder mills.
Alfred was controversial. He did not like desk work and dropped out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work in the powder yards harnessing horses, loading and unloading kegs of dynamite and pushing carts.
His marriage to first cousin Bessie Gardner ended in a bitter divorce. On Oct. 15, 1907 -- the day of the Fontanet disaster -- he married his former neighbor, Alicia Bradford Maddox, and brought her to Vigo County on their honeymoon.
Many members of the duPont family detested Alicia, believing she destroyed Alfred's marriage to Bessie. Alfred countered by suing a few relatives for speaking ill of his wife and built an elaborate mansion, called "Nemours," on 300 acres in Brandywine valley near Wilmington, Del. Nemours, France, was the ancestral home of Alfred's great-great-grandfather.
Alicia duPont died in 1920 and Alfred wed a former high school classmate, Jessica Ball. The couple spent most of their time in Jacksonville, Fla., though Alfred maintained Nemours and ordered a 210-foot bell tower to be erected there in honor of his parents.
The Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children was built adjoining the Nemours Mansion and Gardens, a national historic site, with money bequeathed by Alfred to The Nemours Foundation in 1935. Administered by brother-in-law Edward Ball until his death in 1981, the foundation also established several children's medical clinics in Florida.
Several biographies have been written about the duPont family and Alfred, including "Alfred I. du Pont: The Man and His Family," by Joseph Frazier Wall, published in 1990 by Oxford University Press.
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