A. Cardon & Company.

A. Cardon & Company was organized in 1815 by Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans, James Antoine Bidermann and Joseph Charles Dalmas (of whom the last two were du Pont relatives). Cardon de Sandrans had just arrived in America, having accompanied Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours from France as his companion and secretary. He was a younger brother of Paul François, Baron Cardon de Sandrans (1781-1848), who married a niece of Madame du Pont de Nemours. The firm was to produce leather by an accelerated process of manufacture and established a tannery on Brandywine Creek near Wilmington. Over half the capital was advanced by E. I. du Pont for his brother-in-law, Dalmas, and for Bidermann.

L. F. Chenou was contracted to give instruction in the tanning process, but he left in 1816 to open a tannery in New Orleans. The first leather was produced late in 1816, but Cardon and Bidermann agreed to dissolve the business in 1825. Formal dissolution came on June 1, 1826, and the debts were assumed, temporarily, by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, but eventually charged to the account of Bidermann. Cardon went to Harrisburg, Pa., to manage the tannery of Eldridge & Brick, creditors of A. Cardon & Co. Cardon later owned iron works in Pennsylvania.