About Me

Strasbourg, Alsace

  Jean Michel Prudhomme was born in Strasbourg, Alsace in 1739, and immigrated to Louisiana during its Spanish colonial period. The exact year he came to Louisiana is not known. (They are not the same family as the Prud'hommes of Oakland Plantation, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.) 

    The first record of Jean Michel Prudhomme and his wife Catherine Ritter was 1766, when he was 27 years old and she was 18. They were living together on Louisiana's German Coast, Côte des Allemands, a region north of New Orleans, on the Mississippi River. This area is today comprised of St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James Parishes. 

    By this time, cattle ranching was big business on the German Coast. However, they were bounded by water and had to look elsewhere for grazing land. Settlers began to look to  Opelousas and Attakapas (St. Martinville) for their open prairies. Jean Michel began to buy property in Opelousas Poste in 1774, and was residing in the area in 1777, although the House was probably not built until 1790 at the earliest.  

1732 map of Mississippi River route from
German Coast to New Orleans.

    Jean Michel and Catherine would have three children together: Julienne Prudhomme Clark, "Marie" Marguerite Prudhomme Hargroder, and Marie "Louise" Prudhomme Nerault.

    Jean Michel Prudhomme was a soldier in the Opelousas Poste Militia, first appearing on the muster rolls in 1776. Visit our page on the Opelousas Poste Militia to learn about the Louisiana settlers in the American Revolution.

    Catherine died in Opelousas by 1780. 

    Jean Michel married a second time, to Marie Schnyder. Their grandson's baptism records list Marie's birthplace as Fredericktown, Maryland. We know the couple would have two children together: Michel Andre Prudhomme (also called Michel) and Celeste Prudhomme Cochran Keys.

   Jean Michel Prudhomme became an important local resident, and in 1796, he donated part of his land for the construction of St. Landry Catholic church, measuring “three arpents in front by a depth of forty arpents." One French arpent was 192 feet. The original church was built of cypress wood. He donated “from his woods all the cypress necessary for the construction of said church, priest house, jail, fences in standing posts around the cemetery, yard, garden and other maintenance of the priest.” 

    (The current brick church was built in 1909.)

    Jean Michel Prudhomme died in 1817 around the age of 78 in Opelousas, and is interred under the floor of the church. 

     Soon after arriving in Opelousas Poste, he had 12 cattle, 5 horses, and 11 hogs. At his death in 1817, he was assessed with 50 horses, 400 horned cattle, and 3077 acres of land. His brand was MB, shown below from the Brand Book for Opelousas and Attakapas Districts, 1739-1888. 

Prudhomme's brand, MB 

    Marie Schnyder Prudhomme died in Opelousas in 1823. Her Succession records show the plantation was a cotton plantation and cattle ranch, with some potatoes, corn, bee hives, and sheep for food. Marie's son Michel Andre Prudhomme bought the property at public auction after her death. Michel Andre's son, Louis Prudhomme, eventually owned the home.

    Louis lived in the house with his wife Caroline Barton, one daughter Sydonie, and three sons: Louis, Michael, and Onezine. 

    Onezine died in 1846, at the age of six. There were malaria and cholera outbreaks in Opelousas that year; however, we don't know if these caused  Onezine's death.    

    Then tragedy struck the family again. In 1861, their sons Louis and Michael joined the Confederate Army, and were sent with the 10th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, Confederate States Rangers, to Virginia. Michael died of an illness there in October 1861, at the age of 23, and is buried in Williamsburg, Virginia. Louis resigned from the army in November 1862. We don't know why, but perhaps it was illness or injury, because he died in Opelousas in the same month. He was 27 years old.

     After helping raise Sydonie's children in the House for a while, Louis died in 1881 and Caroline died in 1894.

Ringrose Family in front of House. 
L-R: Edward, Katie, father Michael, mother Catherine

    Michael Ringrose, an immigrant from Ireland then living in Iowa, purchased the plantation in 1894. Michael Ringrose moved into the house with his wife Catherine (Katie) Rafferty Ringrose, and the house became known as Ringrose. The couple had five children: Katie (with dark red hair), William, Norbert, Mary, and Edward. 

    The youngest son, Edward Hoch Ringrose, was an Orphan Train rider adopted by the Ringroses in 1907. Edward Hoch was born in New York in 1904, and the first Orphan Train to Opelousas arrived in 1907, when Michael and Catherine were in their late 50's and Edward was three years old. The local priest at St. Landry Catholic church, Fr. John Engberink, encouraged the people of his parish to adopt these children, who had come from the New York Foundling Hospital. The Ringroses decided to adopt Edward. 

     Michael continued working as a farmer, and died in 1932. His widow Catherine died in 1935. By this time, several acres of the original property had been sold. Edward married and moved to California by 1930. The Ringroses' other children remained living at Ringrose. Eventually, in 1946, daughter Katie sold Ringrose to Joe Sliman, who developed Indian Hills subdivision on some of the Ringrose property.

Ruth Robertson Fontenot 

  

    The final resident of the House was Ruth Robertson Fontenot. Her husband, attorney  L. Austin Fontenot, bought the House from Joe Sliman in 1947. Ruth Robertson Fontenot was the daughter of William Robertson and Marie Celeste Dupre Robertson. A 1933 graduate of Newcomb College, she became an important local historian and archivist with a very impressive resume’. She founded the Opelousas Tourism Commission. She helped establish Jim Bowie Museum in Opelousas. She was the first official archivist for St. Landry Catholic Church, 1951-1975. She secured funding to have many historic buildings surveyed. The Ruth Robertson Fontenot Collection in the ULL Archives includes her architectural surveys for St. Mary, Iberia, St. Landry, St. Martin parishes, various histories for different parishes, genealogy material, photographs, publicity material, and other miscellaneous materials, including materials about Ringrose. Mr. and Mrs. Fontenot also had eight children, and she is remembered as a very good cook.

    She sold the house in 1975, but lived until 1995.

    The House was purchased by Opelousas General Hospital with plans to demolish it, due to its deteriorating condition. In 1975, a group of preservationists came together to form a historical preservation organization, Preservationists of St. Landry, Inc. The organization then purchased the House and a half acre of land from the hospital. The organization is responsible for the ongoing preservation of the House, the original pigeonnier, and the original corn crib/barn.

Educational Resources:

Louisiana History: You can learn more about German immigration to Louisiana from the ULL Center for Louisiana Studies.

ELA: Teaching Christiana Baker Kline's Orphan Train (7-12)

History: You can learn more about the New York Foundling Hospital and the Orphan Train at the Louisiana Orphan Train Museum in Opelousas.

History, Geography: Why would Michael Ringrose immigrate to Iowa? Find out more about Irish immigration to Iowa from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

History: Learn about the Irish Potato Famine from Ireland's Great Hunger Museum.