Hon. Edward Carrington Prudhomme, Natchitoches Parish,
Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller



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Hon. Edward Carrington Prudhomme, scientific farmer, and
proprietor of the Lakeside plantation in Natchitoches Parish, has long
been identified with the public life of the parish.  He is a member
of the Louisiana Legislature, and is one of the members of the
Prudhomme family who have been established in that section of
Natchitoches Parish for more than a century.

He was born July 12, 1869, in the old Manor House of Oakland
plantation, and Lakeside plantation is part of the original tract of land
which was granted one of his ancestors by the French government. 
This ancestor was Emanuel Prudhomme, who came with the French
soldiers to occupy Louisiana.  The tract of land was on both sides of
the Cane River, and the mansion house was built in 1821.  The
second generation of the family to occupy Oakland was P. Phanor
Prudhomme.  He had two sons, J. Alphonse and P. Phanor.  J.
Alphonse was the father of the Hon. Edward C. Prudhomme.  J.
Alphonse Prudhomme was born at Oakland in 1839, and was
liberally educated in Kentucky and the University of Virginia and in
North Carolina College, and was a civil engineer and surveyor by
profession.  He was adjutant of the Second Louisiana Cavalry in the
Confederate army until wounded at the battle of Franklin, after which
he served as an enrolling officer.  After the war he and his brother
managed the plantation, and he retained the original part of the
homestead until his death at the age of eighty years, on February 11,
1919.  He was an official in the first bank established at Natchitoches
and for many years was a member of the police jury.  He married Lise
Le Compte, who died in October, 1923, at the age of eighty-two.

Edward Carrington Prudhomme was one of the eight children of his
parents.  He grew up on the old plantation and finished his education
in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana.  He was a member
of the first football team of that university, which in recent years has
rivaled the universities of the country in football supremacy.  Ten
members of the original team, including Mr. Prudhomme, had a
homecoming day at Notre Dame on November 1, 1924, when Notre
Dame decisively defeated the Georgia Polytechnic School.  The
eleventh member of the team was also alive but unable to attend. 
After leaving the university Mr. Prudhomme returned to the
plantation and became associated with his father in its management
and looking after the store, and was also assistant postmaster at
Bermuda.  He is secretary an treasure: of the Parish Farm
Bureau and a member of the Board of Directors of the State Farm
Bureau.  He has done his work as a farmer on a scientific basis and
has always advocated the value of demonstration work.

Mr. Prudhomme for thirty years has been member of the Parish
Democratic Executive Committee, and he succeeded his father as
parish jury commissioner, serving twenty-one years. In 1924 be
entered the State Legislature, serving on the committees on
education, railroads, vice-chairman of the committee on claims, and a
member of the committee on constitution and executive messages. 
During the World war he was a member of the Local Draft Board,
sold bonds and thrift stamps, aided the Red Cross and had a son who
was overseas.

Mr. Prudhomme married his cousin, Laura Prudhomme, daughter of
P. Emanuel Prudhomme.  They have three children: Reginald, Myrtle
and Emma Lise.  The son Reginald left school to enter the World war
service as a member or the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Louisiana
National Guard, being transferred to the Twenty-seventh Division
and went overseas with this fighting unit of American forces under
the command of General O'Brian.  He was a bugler in his regiment. 
Since the war he has been actively associated with his father on the
plantation.  Reginald Prudhomme married Daisy Cloutier, daughter of
F. Alex Cloutier.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 354-355, by Henry E. Chambers. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and
New York, 1925.