Eleuthere Irenee du Pont
1771 – 1834 American industrialist, founder of DuPont
French-born chemist who founded the DuPont company on the Brandywine.
- Religion
- Protestant (Huguenot descent).
- Affiliations
- Founded E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company as a gunpowder manufacturer in Delaware.
Trained in France under the chemist Lavoisier, he fled the French Revolution and in 1802 founded a gunpowder mill in Delaware. That firm, E. I. du Pont de Nemours, grew into one of the world's largest chemical companies and the base of the du Pont family fortune.
Connections
- family of Pierre S. du Pont — His great-grandfather, founder of the company.
- family of Pierre S. du Pont — His great-grandson, who modernised the company and General Motors.