RICHEST FAMILY

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20691, 29 December 1938, Page 2

RICHEST FAMILY

THE DU PONT DYNASTY MILLIONS FROM ARIWB BENEFITED FROM WARS Anna De Montchanin. lovely fosterchild of wealthy Paris aristocrats, stuck our her firm cleft chin and said ‘‘Non.” They wanted her to become a domestic servant in the household. So Anna ran away ami married a poor watchmaker named I>u Pont, says a wilter in the London Sunday Referee. She never became a servant. None of her descendants has ever become a servant either. To-day, 200 years later, the Du Ponts are bigger even than the Rockefellers. Their two largest companies produce incomes of £30,000,000 a year. They make armaments, explosives, motor cars, paint and artificial silk. The Du Ponts are America’s nearest approach to a dynasty, comparable to the Cecils, the Stanleys, the Hohenrnllerns, the Rothschilds, the Cavendishes. Back to Life They established the first gunpowder factory in America at the time of the French revolution, and. with the exception of a three-year interlude in the early days, the name Du Pont has beaded the explosive industry in America ever since. When 200 years aco Anna Du Pont gave birth to her son Pierre Samuel in their French home, it was she who determined through him to found the dynasty. Though he was small, misshapen and had a flattened nose. Anna fought her husband to give him the best education and wore herself out nursing him through sickness. One terrible day the boy “died” of smallpox. He was being laid out for burial, when he stirred and spoke. The lad recovered. Anna lived long enough to see her child marked out as a young man with a great future, and she died happy. Pierre Samuel had two sons, Victor and Eleuthere Irenee 'the latter names mean “For Liberty and Peace”). Unfortunately Piprre could And neither liberty nor peace in France, so went to America with his sons. Irenee was out shooting one day and ran short of gunpowder. He bought some American runpowder at a local shop. It was poor stuff, dearer and ■astier than the English gunpowder. So Irenee set up a gunpowder factory in America, at a place called Brandywine, four miles from Wilmington, on the Delaware River. Saved by Top Hat From the moment they built their first gunpowder factory the fortunes of the Du Ponts strode forward. Tn the first six years they made a profit o/ 20 per oent. on sales. For generations that became the ■t&ndard expectation of profit. In wartime the family fortunes •welled ouL New factories were built as fast as they could be put up. Henry Du Pont, head of the firm for 40 years, until 1889, wore a hole In the floor under his desk, which was never moved. He wrote every letter himself with a quill pen, refused to use the railways, knew every employee by his Christian name. The one foible of Henry’s that proved a Messing to the firm was his shiny top hat. He would never walk without it. One day he was going round the fhetnry buildings when he noticed that «m exhaust pipe had become red hot mid was throwing out sparks. With hundreds of tons of gunpowder on hand. Henry and the Du Pont fortune looked like going up in a shroud of flame. Henry ran to the creek, filled his top hot with water, and dashed it over the pipe. He ran back for another hatful, and a third, until the sparks ©eased. Divorce Meant Ostracism Tn the family’s early days divorce kneant ostracism. A member who divorced his wife left the firm and the country. At the beginning of this century the strict family outlook on divorce led to a bitter quarrel, which threatened to rend the family with the explosive force of a charge of Du Pont gunpowder. The firm was controlled by three fcousfns —Alfred, Pierre and Coleman Du Pont. Alfred did not get on well with his wife. He fell In love with another Du Pont, a distant cousin. After a stern family council the girl Alicia was hastily married to one of the Du Pont’s secretaries, and in due course gave birth to a daughter. Still the gossip and scandal raged. Finally Alfred took matters into his ©wn hands. Palace of Treasures He got a divorce, Alicia also divorced her recently-married husband and the two Du Punts wedded within a fortnight. They returned to the ancestral countryside hoping that things would smooth out. The family remained unforgiving. Nobody eame to visit them, the gossip continued. Alfred and Alicia fought back. They even brought suits for slander against members of their own family. The *uits were never finished, but a series hanging over the heads of tlie gossipers kept them quiet. The two built- an enormous palace In which to live, carrying the richest treasures from Europe to adorn their home. Since 192*'., when Alfred retired to die in Florida, the family ranks have closed. Pierre, who remained head of the organisation and the family, is now in semi-retirement, but tie still maintains a close contact with the affairs of the dynasty. And after him come many more Du Ponts of the younger generations, readv to take over the leadership of the business that is now the biggest in the world. Most of them have married other members or the family, vof them have the hard •'left chin their ancestor, the pretty Anne de aßontrhanin, who ran away with a watchmaker.