Samuel Minot Jones, who grew up on Amity Street in Amherst, Massachusetts during the 1840s and 1850s, left his fortune in order to establish the Jones Library. 

Samuel left his family and home at 18 and went to Chicago to apprentice with his brothers in the lumber business. At 25, he enlisted in the Army and fought for the Union in the Civil War. After the war, he returned to Chicago and had a successful career as a lumber merchant. Following his retirement from business, he married Harriet Stenger and they had one son, Minot.