Du Pont family

Lore & Background

The Du Pont family, descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French minor aristocrat, has been one of the wealthiest families in the United States since the mid-19th century. Their fortune originated in the gunpowder business, founded by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont in 1802 with a mill on the Brandywine River near Wilmington, Delaware. The site was chosen for its water power, abundant willow trees for charcoal, and access to the Delaware River for shipping sulfur and saltpeter. The company grew into the world’s largest black powder manufacturer. The family expanded into the chemical and automotive industries, holding substantial interests in the DuPont company, General Motors, and other corporations. The family’s influence extended into politics, with members serving as U.S. senators and a governor of Delaware, and they assisted in negotiations for the Treaty of Paris and the Louisiana Purchase. The Du Ponts are noted for their horticultural legacy, with Charles Sprague Sargent recognizing them in 1924 for making the Wilmington area a chief U.S. horticulture center. Many former family estates, including Winterthur, Nemours, and Longwood Gardens, are now public museums, gardens, or parks. The family has also been active in historic preservation, helping found the National Trust for Historic Preservation and preserving President James Madison’s home, Montpelier. In the 19th century, they maintained wealth through carefully arranged marriages between cousins. Members have been involved in thoroughbred horse breeding and racing, establishing venues like Delaware Park. As of 2016, the family fortune was estimated at $14.3 billion, spread across over 3,500 living relatives.

Reader's Guide

The Du Pont family's significance lies in their transformation from French immigrants into one of America's most enduring industrial dynasties. Beyond business, the family shaped Delaware's economy—at its peak employing up to 10 percent of the state's population—and influenced national politics, with members serving as U.S. senators and a governor. The family also left a lasting cultural legacy through horticulture, historic preservation, and land conservation. Their estates, including Winterthur, Nemours, and Longwood Gardens, are now public museums and gardens. Their role in founding the National Trust for Historic Preservation and preserving sites like Montpelier and the First State National Historical Park highlights their commitment to heritage.

Did You Know?

• While some cousin marriages occurred among the Du Ponts, the family's wealth was primarily maintained through business acumen, strategic investments, and trusts, not through a systematic practice of arranged cousin marri

From One Pump to a Regional Powerhouse

In 1960, Herbert Hill Peyton opened a lone fueling station on Jacksonville's Northside, planting the seed of what would grow into Gate Petroleum. The company's very name was borrowed from Jacksonville's civic branding of that era, when the city promoted itself as 'The Gateway to Florida.' Throughout the 1960s, the business steadily added more stations across Jacksonville before extending its reach into the wider southeastern United States. The 1973 oil shock proved a turning point: rather than staying a pure fuel retailer, Gate began placing convenience goods on its shelves, a strategic pivot that opened the door to far broader ambitions. By the early 1980s, Peyton had fundamentally reimagined the enterprise, transforming it from a petroleum-selling operation into a multifaceted conglomerate with stakes in real estate, construction materials, and hospitality. What began as a single pump on a Northside street had become the engine of a diversified Florida corporation.

The Diversification Decade, 1978 to 1985

Between 1978 and 1985, Gate Petroleum executed a string of bold acquisitions that redefined its identity. In 1978 the company founded Gate Roofing Company in Green Cove Springs to produce asphalt felt; the plant eventually ran around the clock before being sold to Tamko Building Products in 1994. When Houdaille-Duval exited its Florida construction division in 1980, Gate snapped up a Jacksonville prestressed concrete plant and five asphalt facilities for $10 million, then acquired Houdaille-Duval's Houston concrete operation for just $1 million—roughly half its appraised value. The defining move came in 1983, when Peyton purchased the Florida land portfolio of Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co. from Phillips Petroleum for $60 million, securing more than 16,000 acres in northeast Florida that included the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, Deerwood Country Club, and the Guana tract. In 1985, Gate also took 200 acres on Blount Island from Westinghouse Electric for $17 million, a parcel tied to a failed offshore power venture.

Land, Legacy, and the Du Pont Thread

Gate Petroleum's real-estate holdings carried both commercial ambition and deep historical resonance. The 8,000-acre Guana River woodland was the first major parcel divested; the Florida Department of Environmental Protection bought it for $49 million, and it now anchors the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. In 1984, Gate acquired Epping Forest, a 58-acre riverfront estate that had once belonged to industrialist Alfred I. du Pont, purchasing it from Raymond K. Mason—then chairman of the financially troubled Charter Company—for $8 million. Today the property operates as the Epping Forest Yacht Club, one of four private clubs consolidated under the Gate Hospitality Group banner in 2013. The company also bought the Gulf Life Tower in 1993 for $9 million after it had sat on the market for nearly three years at a $30 million asking price, renovated it, renamed it Riverplace Tower, and sold it in 2014 for $29 million. In 1980, Gate partnered with Bryant Skinner Company to develop the 250-acre Southpoint office park, catalyzing growth in the corridor northeast of Interstate 95.

Family Stewardship and the Modern Enterprise

The Peyton family retains 80 percent ownership of Gate Petroleum, with the remaining shares held by long-term employees known internally as 'Brothers,' a title that spans both men and women who have built careers within the company. John Peyton, Herbert's eldest son, stepped away from the business for eight years to serve two terms as Jacksonville mayor from 2003 to 2011. Upon his return, he assumed the presidency when his father retired on January 3, 2012, while Herb remained chairman and Mitchell Rhodes moved into the chief operating officer seat. Hill Peyton took on marketing leadership. The company's core fueling and convenience-store operations run from a 57,000-square-foot headquarters in Sunbeam, constructed by Elkins Constructors in 1999. Its divisions span Gate Construction Materials, with precast concrete facilities across seven states, and Gate Hospitality Group, which employs nearly 900 people. In fiscal 2022, Gate reported $1.44 billion in sales, 3,500 employees, and ranked 338th among America's largest private companies on the Forbes list.