Alfred I. Du Pont - Early Years

Early Years

Du Pont was born in the Brandywine Valley region of Delaware to which his great-great-grandfather Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours had emigrated with his sons after the French Revolution. The son of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, II, a partner in the DuPont family gunpowder business, and Charlotte Shepard Henderson, he had two older sisters and two younger brothers. When du Pont was 13, his mother, who had a history of mental illness, was committed to an asylum following an episode of hysteria. Within a week, she died. The du Pont children were orphaned a month later when Eleuthère Irénée du Pont followed, a victim of tuberculosis.

Du Pont's family intended to separate the children and sell their family home, Swamp Hall, but were persuaded otherwise by the fierce resistance of the children. The girls remained in the home, but du Pont was sent to boarding school: first, to the religious Shinn Academy in New Jersey and then, two years later, Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. After graduation, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, rooming with his cousin Coleman du Pont.