not be a good investment, or a remunerative industry, to combine tanning 

 with saw mills . . . , and could not the rivers carry down casks full of the 

 juice of tan — or liquid tannin — as they now do wood for building and potash. 



Finally, on one point the father agreed with his son: "It is certain 

 that your Americans make a great deal of leather and make it very 

 badly; it absorbs water like a sponge and does not wear at all." ^^^ 



Apparently, after this exchange the discussion was dropped — 

 Victor built a woolen mill across the Brandy wine from the powder 

 yard, a cotton mill had been built at Hagley, the powder business 

 occupied most of Irenee's time, and with the War of 1812 came the 

 expansion of the company as well as difficulties within the partner- 

 ship; collectively, these factors ended for a time any new enterprise. 

 Not until du Pont de Nemours decided to return to America did 

 the subject of a tannery again appear in the du Fonts' corre- 

 spondence. 



Sophie M. du Pont reveals in her memoir: "When Grandpapa 

 came to America in 1815 . . . he could not very well make the 

 trip alone." ^^^ Maurice de Pusy, who was to have accompanied 

 the elder du Pont, decided not to come, and, as a consequence, 

 Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans came to the Brandywine in the 

 spring of 1815 as du Pont de Nemour's companion and secretary. ^'^" 



The desire to have everyone associated with him gainfully 

 employed seemingly caused Pierre Samuel to once again think in 

 terms of a tannerv. But now, instead of Victor du Pont, it was 



"0 Ibid., pp. 257-258. 



'*' Sophie du Pont, "Brother Remembers," Winterthur MSS, 1, group 9, box 90; Eleutherian 

 Mills Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware. 



'■*- Little is known of Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans. Baron Klinkowstrom's America, 181S-1820, 

 Franklin D. Scott, ed. and transl. (Evanston, 1952), p. 54, states that Cardon's father had been a 

 member of the constituent assembly, presumably Joseph de Cardon, Baron de Sandrans, who was 

 a "deputy of the nobles of Bresse to the Estates General in 1789." Klinkowstrom refers to young 

 Cardon as "Baron Sandran" and states that he had been a member of the Garde du Corps until re- 

 organization of the regiments of France had left him dissatisfied and ready to leave the country. 

 Du Pont de Nemours' correspondence confirms Klinkowstrom and gives insight into Cardon's person- 

 ality, which was apparently that of a young aristocrat suddenly stripped of rank and prestige and 

 forced to work for a living for the first time in his life. 



Cardon's personal life on the Brandywine is as obscure as his early life in France. From the business 

 records of A. Cardon and Company one is able to draw a fair picture of Cardon the business man, 

 for the years spent on the Brandywine. After 1825, Cardon moved to Harrisburg, where he invested 

 in a tannery and later in an ironworks. The meager evidence uncovered indicates that he and his 

 family hoped to return to Europe in 1833, thus turning their backs on the New World as well as on 

 their many creditors. As late as 1837, Cardon was still in this country. In addition to Scott, material 

 relating to Cardon may be found in the Old Stone Office Records, and in the Longwood 

 MSS, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware. 



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