Page 41 - The Hunt - Summer 2020

Powder mills were especially dangerous
places to work. DuPont company lore had it that any employee caught with a match would be immediately fired.
been destroyed by flood or fire, because the locations were good ones.
Arriving from France at the beginning of the 19th century, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours and his family were late to the milling industry.
But they quickly made up for lost time. “He began buying up properties on both sides of the river starting in 1801-1802,” says Clawson.
Du Pont de Nemours’ intention was to become a leader in the production of the black powder used as ammunition for hunting game and making war. It was also an explosive perfect for carving out roads, canals and mine quarries.
Though most material for clothing was then manufactured in Great Britain, early trade disputes, followed by the War of 1812, enticed American manufacturers—among them du Pont—to open woolen mills along the Brandywine. After the war, foreign competition resumed. “In the 1830s, mill technology changed,” says Clawson. “Turbines began to replace the water wheels.”
Powder mills were an especially dangerous place to work. DuPont company lore had it that any employee caught with a match would be immediately fired. The family member or
employee who managed the mills lived in on- site housing, so as to have a personal interest in safety. Just in case, the part of the mill adjacent to the creek was designed to carry the force of an explosion away from houses and offices.
During the 1800s, the DuPont company owned several mills along the creek. The final one ceased operations in 1921, though the company continued to make black powder elsewhere until 1975. A 235-acre venue on
the west side of the creek, Hagley became a nonprofit library and museum open to the public in 1972. The site includes restored mills, a workers’ community, and the ancestral home and gardens of the du Pont family.
Less than a mile downstream from Hagley, Breck’s Mill was built in the 1810s as a cotton- spinning mill. The interior later burned. By
the turn of the century, it was being used as everything from a community center to a small playhouse to a live music venue. Eventually, it was donated to Hagley, who needed tenants. “Hagley Museum heard I was looking [for a new gallery space], and the second floor was opening up for rent,” says Vickie Manning, whose Somerville Manning Gallery is now a tenant.
The site is among the most beautiful along the Brandywine. The mill faces the creek at the site
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