John Storer

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Storer College, founded with John Storer's donation

John Storer (January 18, 1796 – October 23, 1867) was a merchant and philanthropist from Sanford, Maine, who was the namesake of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Biography[]

Storer was born in 1796 in Wells, Maine, and was a Congregationalist. He started working as a clerk for the firm of Smith & Porter in Kennebunk, Maine, but on their recommendation, and with their financing, he set up his own shop in Sanford in 1820.[1] He eventually owned stores throughout the state of Maine and made numerous lucrative investments.[2][1]

Storer was "an avowed Whig",[3] later a Republican. No one in Sanford was more in favor of the Union cause.[1] As told by the wife of Rev. Oren B. Cheney, founder of Bates College, a Freewill Baptist school in Maine, Cheney suggested to Storer that his desire to donate to "the colored race" could finance a Free Baptist school for former slaves.[4] Storer offered $10,000 to the Freewill Baptists for a "colored school" in the South, with several conditions. First, the school must plan to become a degree-granting college. Second, the school had to be open to all applicants, regardless of "race" or gender. And, finally, the Freewill Baptist Church had to match his $10,000 donation within the year. The money was raised, and Storer College opened its doors; in March 1868 it received its state charter. Storer died in 1867, of typhoid fever; Free Will Baptist ministers conducted the funeral.[3] His heirs donated additional funds to the school.[2][1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Emery, Edwin (1901). Emery, William Morrell (ed.). The History of Sanford, Maine, 1661-1900. Fall River, Massachusetts: William Morrell Emery. pp. 507–508.
  2. ^ a b Burke, Dawne Raines (2004). Storer College: A Hope for Redemption in the Shadow of Slavery (PDF). Ph.D. dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).
  3. ^ a b Burke, Dawne Raines (2015). An American Phoenix: A History of Storer College from Slavery to Desegregation, 1865–1955. Morgantown, West Virginia: Storer College Books, an imprint of West Virginia University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-1940425771.
  4. ^ Burlingame-Cheney, Emeline (1907). The Story of the Life and Work of Oren B. Cheney, Founder and First President of Bates College. Boston: . pp. 159–160.
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