Du Pont Dynasty by Gerard Colby

Author:Gerard Colby
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781453220887
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2017-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

FLORIDA—THE HIDDEN EMPIRE

1. ALFRED THE CONQUEROR

On a warm autumn day in September of 1970 a line of mourners quietly filed across the manicured grounds of Nemours, the Delaware estate of the late Alfred I. du Pont. Slowly they approached the tall stone bell tower that loomed overhead.

Beneath that carillon rested the remains of the man who, in his struggle with Pierre du Pont, had torn the Du Pont clan asunder over five decades ago. The greatest “rebel” in Du Pont history, Alfred I. du Pont, had died in Florida in 1935. Now his family and friends gathered to place next to him the remains of his third and last wife, Jessie.

While Jessie Ball du Pont was being entombed next to her husband in Delaware, mourners also gathered a thousand miles to the south, in the state of Florida. There, in Jacksonville, Florida’s busiest port, flags flew at half mast in her honor, and bankers and politicians by the score expressed their feelings of loss. Florida had lost not only its richest resident, with a personal estate valued at over $100 million; Florida had lost its queen.

As the reigning monarch of a vast multibillion dollar Du Pont empire, and the state’s leading dispenser of philanthropic grace, Jessie du Pont was truly the Queen of Florida. Aided and guided by the guardian of her throne, brother Edward Ball, the Du Pont estate controlled Florida’s largest bank, Florida’s government, and Florida’s most important railroad, and owned outright the largest chunk of Florida’s real estate held in private hands. In Florida Jessie’s word was golden; her brother’s word was law.

How this came about is the untold story of the Du Pont family’s hidden empire in the land of sun and sand. It is an epic that spans half a century, marking Florida’s long climb out of the murky swamps to the playland we now call the sunshine state. And above all, it is the story not only of a queen, but of a king and the regent who became what many Floridians called “the emperor.”

The Du Pont empire in Florida was literally born under the shadow of ruin, ruin of Florida’s economy, and ruin of the personal fortune of Alfred I. du Pont.

In 1923 Alfred’s feud with his Wilmington brethren and his narrow escape from financial disaster prompted him to look for greener fields beyond the stone fences of Delaware. His search ended a thousand miles away, in the whirlwind of southern Florida’s land boom.

“In those days,” Jessie recalled of Alfred’s winter visits to Florida, “everyone dressed for dinner. We were staying at the Royal Palm. We would dine, then change to street clothes and go out to mingle with the crowds. My brother and I had been through the southern California booms, and it was exciting.

“Mr. du Pont and I would walk down to Flagler Street weaving through the crowds. The binder boys were busy on every hand. The air was electrified, charged and surcharged. It would take us ten minutes to walk two blocks.

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