When doing research on a family like the du Ponts, some rather fascinating stories come to light as one starts to get a picture of what life must have been like within this extremely newsworthy family. While the first three generations of the family in this country devoted themselves to overcoming the hardships of turning a small powder company into one of America’s premier companies, the later generations were born into the family wealth and privilege, which perhaps explains better some of their behavior. Some of the problems the family had may also be due to the early tendency for inter-family marriages, once encouraged in the family to “keep the line pure”, but later strongly discouraged.
The du Ponts were a volatile bunch to say the least. Taking a look at just one little branch of the family, we can see the drama that seems to go hand in hand with this group. In 1877, both Eleuthere du Pont and his wife, Charlotte Henderson, passed away, leaving behind five children: Anne, Marguerite, Alfred I., Maurice and Louis. Though some of their relatives wanted to split the children up and have them raised in different households, the five youngsters were determined to stay together and they did.
Alfred Irenee du Pont, the oldest of the sons, was the fist to marry, when in 1887 he married Bessie Gardner. As the story goes, his younger brother Louis had met Bessie first and was quite enamored of her, but she married Alfred instead. Two years later, middle brother Maurice astounded the family by marrying an Irish barmaid named “Lottie” Fitzgerald, causing quite a stir at the time, though “Lottie” was quickly absorbed into the family and became quite popular. In 1892, the youngest brother, Louis took his own life at the Wilmington Club Library and though, no reason was ever given publicly, his feelings for Bessie Gardner, now his brother’s wife, are said to have been a factor.
Bessie, apparently, was quite a handful, as it turns out. She and Alfred had four children together: Madeleine, Bessie, Alfred Victor, and Victorine. In 1906, Alfred established temporary residency in South Dakota and filed for divorce from Bessie, under the grounds of “extreme cruelty and inhuman treatment”.
The article below gives an indication that Alfred Irenee’s claims of Bessie’s behavior may have some real basis:
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The Boston Journal. 1907-12-20
Dupont’s Daughter Elopes with Student
Wilmington, Del., Dec. 19. — Miss Madeleine Dupont, oldest daughter of Alfred I. DuPont, the millionaire vice president of the Dupont Powder Company, and niece of United States Senator, H. A. Dupont, eloped to Washington yesterday with John Bancroft, a Princeton sophomore.
News of the clandestine marriage became known upon the return of the couple to Wilmington.
Simultaneously the bride announced that she would never have eloped but for the cruel treatment accorded to her by her own mother, who is Alfred I. Dupont’s divorced wife. The girls told her friends pathetically that life with her mother had become unbearable, that she was forced to run away and wed the boy to whom she has been engaged for four years.
Young Bancroft is 24 years old, He is the son of John Bancroft, the millionaire textile manfacturer of Wilmington.
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Alfred Irenee du Pont was among the first to congratulate his daughter on her marriage at the time, but his feelings toward her would change dramatically a few years later. In the meantime, in 1913, he brought suit to have the name of his son, Alfred Victor, legally changed in court, as he was concerned that his own name would be tainted by association: “Because of some of the acts of his mother, my former wife, I do not care for the child to bear my name.” The court action failed, but young Alfred Victor never forgave his father and alluded to his father’s having generated questions about Bessie’s fidelity and Alfred Victor’s paternity. As the young man stood by his mother against his father, Alfred Irenee’s response was to disinherit his son.
Two years earlier, in 1911, Alfred had disinherited Madeleine, his oldest daughter, when her latest antics became too much for him. Madeleine had just been sued for divorce by John Bancroft, Jr., the young with whom she had eloped just a few years earlier and the suit also named her newborn infant as a co-respondent, stating that the infant was the child of her lover, Max Hiebler. Though she denied the charges and counter-sued, the court found in Bancroft’s favor and awarded him custody of their son, John Bancroft, III.
Obviously, Alfred was not having an easy time of it during the early part of the 1900’s and the trials and tribulations of his children was only part of it, but that will have to wait till another post.