Donelson Caffery

Caffery's Senate years turned on sugar. Born in Franklin in 1835, he was a lieutenant in the 13th Louisiana Infantry and owned a sugar plantation after the war. He was appointed to the Senate in 1892 to finish Randall Gibson's term, then elected to a full term from 1894 to 1901. He opposed American expansion into Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines, fearing tariff-free sugar from those places would undercut Louisiana planters. His son ran for governor in 1900 as the Lily-White Republican nominee and lost to W. W. Heard.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Grevemberg House Museum — steps away
  Franklin's 1851 Greek Revival townhouse, the official St. Mary Parish museum, saved from demolition by one vote and set in the Franklin Historic District on Bayou Teche.
• Chitimacha Museum — 6.2 mi
  The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Charenton: the tribe's account of its territory, the French wars and enslavement, the land held in trust, and river cane baskets.
• Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum — 15 mi
  A Louisiana State Museum in Patterson on the world's largest cypress sawmill town and the Wedell-Williams racing planes, with a theater and changing exhibits.
• Cypremort Point State Park — 22 mi
  A 185-acre Vermilion Bay park reached by road, with a half-mile man-made beach, a marsh boardwalk, shore fishing and a boat launch, and a Chitimacha tradition of a great cypress here.

More markers nearby

• German Prisoner of War Camp — 0.5 mi
• Edward V. Loustalot — 0.7 mi
• Battle of Irish Bend — 0.8 mi
• The Gunboat Diana — 0.8 mi