John Storer

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.

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 a $10,000 matching grant to the Freewill Baptists for a "colored school" in the South,[5] with several conditions.

Storer died in 1867, of typhoid fever; Free Will Baptist ministers conducted the funeral.