Existing comment:
Selecting the Site:
The ideal site had to be located near a rapidly moving stream for a dependable source of waterpower to operate the mills. It needed to be somewhat isolated, some distance away from a city because of the potential for explosions, yet close enough to transport the powder easily to markets.
E.I. du Pont looked at land in Maryland and Virginia, near the nation's new capital, before he decided upon a site near Wilmington, Delaware, for his gunpowder mills. The site selected (approximately 1 mile upstream from here) met these requirements and had the added benefit that other French immigrants lived nearby.
A sixty-five acre site was acquired from Jacob Broom in the spring of 1802. E.I. du Pont and his family arrived here from New Jersey in July. The problems of beginning a company were particularly difficult for a young Frenchman of twenty-nine with limited capital in a new country whose language he did not speak. A methodical and practical man, du Pont tackled the major problems of raising capital, recruiting workmen, and building the mills. Construction began in the summer of 1802, and within two years, the powder mills were in operation. |