Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/363

 DUPERON

DU PONT

war with Spain. He was appointed colonel of the volunteer signal corps, which, under his direction, was organized, equipped and placed in the field in thirty days. In July, 1898, he was promoted colonel and assistant chief signal officer of the army. While conducting his meteorolog- ical work, he took a course of law at Columbia college, and was graduated LL.B. in 1876. He is the author of numerous papers on meteorology and kindred subjects.

DUPERON, Thomas, R.C. abbot, was born in Siboui-e, Basses Pyrenees, France, Oct. 29, 1842. He was educated for the priesthood by the Benedictine fathers and was ordained at the Ca- thedral Bayonne by Mgr. Francis Lacroix, May 23, 1889. He made solemn profession in the Abbey church of Pierre qui Vire, Jvily 29, 1877, and came to America, locating in Oklahoma, Indian Territor}'. He was made prior of Sacred Heart Abbey, Dec. 21, 1884, and abbot, Aug. 12, 1896. His election was approved by the abbot-general, Sept. 14, 1896, and he was blessed by Vicariate Apostolic Theophile Meer.schaert, D.D., at Paris, France, Nov. 11, 1896. He died in Paris, France, Jan. 7. 1898.

DU FONT, Charles Irenee, manufacturer, was born in Charleston, S. C., March 29, 1797 ; eldest son of Victor Marie Du Pont de Nemours. In 1798 he accompanied his parents to France and returned with them to America in 1799. He was educated at Mount Airy seminary, Germantown, Pa., and was as.sociated with his father in the manufacture of cloth at Louviers, near Wilmingon, Del. , and on his father's death in 1827 became the head of the establishment. He retired in 18o6. He wasa mem- ber of the Delaware legislature, one of the organ- izers of the Delaware railroad, and president of the Farmers' bank of Delaware. He was married in 1824 to Dorcas Montgomery Van Dj-ke, who died in 1838, and secondly, in 1841, to Anne Ridgely. He died at Louviers, Del., Jan. 31, 1869.

DU PONT DE NEMOURS, Eleuthere Irenee, manufacturer, was born in Paris, France, June 24, 1771 ; son of Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours and Nicole-Charlotte-Marie-Louise (Le Dee de Rencourt) DuPont. His godfather, the famous Turgot, chose his Christian names. He learned the art of making gunpowder at the royal mills at Es- sonne, with a view to succeeding his father's friend, Lavoisier, as superintendent of the Frencli govern- ment powder works, a plan interrupted by the revo- lution. When his father founded a printing and publishing house in the interest of the moderate party (1791) he became its superintendent, thereby entering upon the dangerous field of politics. He was thrice imprisoned and his personal safety often imperilled. He went to the Tuilleries with his father to defend the king, Aug. 10, 1792, escaping afterward to the country and lying hidden at

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Essonne. After the terror he joined his father in opposing the Jacobins who pillaged the latter 's property and destroyed the printing hovise, which left him financially ruined and without employ- ment. With his father and brother and their fami- lies he emigrated to America in 1799. Having noticed the poor quality of the Amer- ican gunpowder of that time he visited France in 1801 for plans, models and machinery, and on his return to the United States founded the Eleutherean mills for the manufacture of gim powder, four miles from Wilmington, Del. (1802). He de- clined sites in Vir- ginia, though urged to locate there by his father's friend, Jefferson, and in Maryland, on account of his antipathy to slavery. These mills in 1810 already produced 600,000 pounds per an- num ; during the war of 1812 they furnished all the powder used by the American army, and as early as 1834 they were the first in size in the country. They exported for the use of the Eng- lish army in the Crimea : and they supplied the United States government with a large proportion of all the powder used by the army in the civil war, 1861-65, and in the war with Spain in 1898. Du Pont served as captain of Delaware volunteers in the war of 1812, was a director of the United States bank, a member of the American coloniza- tion society, was a leading agriculturist in his state, and was distinguished for public spirit and philanthropy. He married in Paris, in 1791, Sophie Madeleine Dalmas, who died in 1828. His sons, Alfred Victor, Henrj" and Alexis Irenee, success- fulh' carried on his business, under the original name of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. He died of cliolera in Philadelphia. Pa.. Oct. 31, 1834.

DU PONT, Gideon, planter, was born in South Carolina in 1712; younger son of Abraham Du Pont, a great-uncle of Du Pont de Nemours, who was driven from France by Huguenot persecution in 1681 and who came to America about 1694, after living many years in London. Gideon Du Pont introduced the successful cultm-e of rice in the Carolinas and devised the method of destroying the weeds bj^ flooding the fields to a certain depth with water. He never took out a patent for this device, the knowledge of which made rice cul- tui'e profitable, so that neither he nor his family gained by the impetus he thus gave to agriculture. His plantation was located on the banks of the Santee river. There is no record of his death.