Fenway Donegan, Class of 2025 Presents His Research

Inaugural O'Neill Fellowship

On Friday, September 8, JHC hosted the inaugural Margaret Nolan O’Neill Fellowship Presentation. The fellowship was established in 2022 in memory of Maggie O’Neill, who studied Political Science and Government at Columbia University. The purpose of this academic opportunity is to advance scholarship in American History and foster respectful dialogue of topics relevant to the evolution of our nation, the shaping of its democracy and place in the global arena.

This year’s first O’Neill Fellow, Fenway Donegan, Class of 2025, presented his resulting work titled “Mere Occupants – Transfer and Seizure of Land During Rye’s First Century” to a mesmerized, capacity crowd. Supervised by two Columbia professors, Lynne Breslin and Robert Amdur,  Fenway’s initial focus was the impact of forced land transfers and confiscation laws in the Revolutionary period  – the removal of property used by the fledgling American government as a means to punish political dissidents and raise needed funds for the war effort. He expanded his study to encompass the seizure and transfer of Indigenous Munsee lands prior to that period for a more comprehensive overview of Rye’s early history. Photos and video can be found here.