John O'Donnell

John O'Donnell (1749–1805) was an Irish merchant based in Baltimore, Maryland. After spending many years in his early life adventuring and trading in East Asia, he settled in Baltimore, establishing a plantation that would become the neighbourhood of Canton.

A bronze statue of him, sculpted by Tylden Streett stood in Canton's O'Donnell Square Park from 1980 to 2021, when it was ordered removed by Mayor Brandon Scott.

Biography O'Donnell, born in Limerick, Ireland in 1749, His ship returned to the city in August 1785, carrying rich cargo including teas, porcelain, satins, silk, paper wall-hangings, cinnamon, rhubarb, and opium. Upon hearing of the sale, George Washington sent Colonel Tench Tilghman with a list of articles he wanted "if great bargains are to be had — my purchases depends entirely on the prices". The neighborhood of Canton, Baltimore, along with its O'Donnell Square, would take its name from O'Donnell's property. The 1790 United States census listed 36 enslaved people lived on O'Donnell's plantation. . In his letters, he described his party being plundered and harshly imprisoned. He lost a great sum of his fortune in the raid, and eventually freed himself by surrendering the rest of his fortune through negotiations in Egypt . Upon his return, he worked over the years to rebuild what he had lost.

O'Donnell died at age 56 at Canton on October 5, 1805. At the time of his death, he was one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He was buried at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, A marker installed by the administration of Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer called O'Donnell "a man of great vision and accomplishment".

Removal During global protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a Change.org petition calling for Mayor Bernard C. Young to remove the O'Donnell statue was filed, and had almost 600 signatures by October 2020. Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, the city's Democratic nominee for mayor, called for the creation of "a truth and reconciliation committee to look at statues, monuments, and street names across our city — not just for this statue, but all of them". In November, the Canton Anti-Racism Alliance and the Canton Community Association issued a letter to Young calling for the statue's immediate removal.