Delawareans are enriched by the DuPont Company and Family

I had reported several months ago on a Living History drama with music that I am writing entitled The DuPont Story A Family A Company.
The mission is to take the live multimedia presentation into schools throughout the state. I chose watershed events of the family/company over the past 200 + years and have completed research at Hagley.
Last month I met with 5 Associates of the Dept of Education (DOE) to certify that the show subscribed to not only Social Studies/History Standards but also Visual & Performing Arts and English Language Arts. It was thrilling to see the enthusiasm of these educational professionals. While I initially envisioned the hour production only, collectively they suggested creating a specific “Unit of Instruction” for the project and that my troupe would present as a culmination of the study.
A Delaware contingent – including some of the Associates – had recently returned from a trip to our Sister City, Nemours France. Next spring the trip is reciprocated and my troupe would be invited to stage the show for them.
The more I read about the family and company, the greater my passion grows. There is no state in the Union that has been impacted by a family or a company as have we in Delaware. Students have no understanding of how all our lives have been enriched. Had EI du Pont not chosen Delaware over other locations to found the company and had not AI, PS and Coleman du Pont (The Triumphant Triumvirate) not bought the company from the elders in 1902, we would be demonstrably poorer in so many disciplines.
Here are some facts:
1802 - EI bought 95 acres on the Brandywine for $6700.00 from Jacob Broom (as in street)
He constructed several mills with massive stone walls on 3 sides. The side facing the Brandywine was wood. If an explosion occurred, the force of the blast was carried across the creek. “A trip across the creek” was black humor for being in an explosion; a one way excursion. (In my research I discovered that I am a product of a trip 'across the creek'. The widow of a creek traveler married another mill worker. They are my great great grandparents.)
1902 - the 3 cousins bought the company with NO money down. The trio gave the elders stock in the new company they would create. The purchase price was $12 million. The only cash outlay was $2100 for attorney fees. AI and PS soon went over the books and discovered the true value of the company was $24 million. Now, that's a bargain!
A few years later a bitter rift occurred amongst them. AI paid local kids to bring glass bottles to Nemours. They were broken and implanted on the top of the wall to...”keep everyone out whose last name is du Pont!”
1909 - Coleman trumpeted, “I'm going to build a monument to myself 100 miles long and lay it flat!”. That was Rt 13 and cost $4 million, all his own money. This opened commerce statewide. Later PS paved Kennett Pike to travel unrutted to Longwood.
1919 - PS built the middle school on PA Ave. That was just the start. Soon, 17,000 DE children were given classrooms. He also built 86 schools for Negro children, their first formal education, spending $5 million personally. That was when $5 million meant something!
1927 - then President Lammot du Pont exclaimed, “the future of the company depends upon research. It is more important than profits.” 'Fundamental' research was funded. Gifted scientists were brought to the X Station and given major resources with no particular end product in mind. Wallace Carothers was one of them.
Braunstein's on Market Street was the first retail store in America to sell nylon stockings. 4000 pair were sold in one hour for $1.15 per.
1941 - nylon parachutes were needed and stockings were discontinued production. 2200 pairs of stocking yarn went into 1 parachute.
DuPont gunpowder has been the US arsenal of democracy in every war from 1812 to WWII
For more info, join my FaceBook group – The DuPont Story