Quinton, Charles E. "Charley"
1885-1952 |Prospector, Miner, and Businessman
Charles “Charley” Edward Quinton was born in Dexter, Maine on July 21, 1885.[1] As a young man Quinton traveled across the United States to the west coast and eventually arrived at the gold fields of Nome in 1901. After two unsuccessful years there, he headed back south and attended a barber college with the idea of having a back-up trade if he did not make it rich in the gold mining business. He returned to Alaska in 1905 and prospected in the Copper River Country and the Kantishna district during the summer months. In 1907, he was mining in the Valdez area.[2]
In 1909-1910, Quinton operated a barber shop in Cordova, Alaska with C.L. Holman. In 1911-1912, he was a barber with Giegold & Flower in Cordova.[3]
In 1920, Quinton finally settled in Anchorage and opened a barbershop with L.A. Haley.[4] He opened his own barber shop in Anchorage and also had a shop in Palmer, Alaska.[5]
Bessie Griffin was born in Louisville, Colorado in 1894. She met Charles Quinton when she came to Anchorage from Montana to visit her sister Edith Knapp. Bessie and Charles were married in 1922. Bessie worked as a bookkeeper for various stores and also was employed as a court reporter. He continued to have the "gold fever" and at every opportunity was off prospecting with his partners, John Bagoy and Dewey Burnett, in the Kantishna area.
Bessie and Charles Quinton had three sons: Griffin (born in 1924); Harry (born in 1926); and Howard (born in 1931). The family home was located at 1220 East G Street, in Anchorage.[6]
Charles Edward Quinton died on December 8, 1952, at the age of sixty-eight, in Seattle, Washington. Bessie Griffin Quinton died in June 1975. Both are buried in Angelus Memorial Park, Anchorage, as is their granddaughter, Diane Lee Quinton.[7]
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Endnotes
[1] Draft registration card, Charles Edward Quinton, Anchorage, AK, 1942, Draft Registration Cards for Fourth Registration for Alaska, April 27, 1942, NAI Number 4504983, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147, National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, in U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016).
[2] John P. Bagoy, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 190-191.
[3] Entries for Charles Quinton, in David A. Hales, Margaret N. Heath, and Gretchen Lake, An Index to Dawson City, Yukon Territory and Alaska Directory and Gazetteer, Alaska-Yukon Directory and Gazetteer, and Polk's Alaska-Yukon Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1901-1912, Volume V: O-S (Fairbanks: Alaska and Polar Regions Department, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995-1999), 85, Scholarworks@UA, https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/2730 (accessed September 18, 2016).
[4] Entry for C.E. Quinton, barber, Polk’s 1923-24 Alaska-Yukon Gazetteer and Business Directory: Containing Alphabetical Lists of Business Firms and Private Citizens of the towns of Anchorage, Cordova, Dawson, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Mayo, Nenana, Nome, Petersburg, Seward, Skagway, Valdez, White House and Wrangell; Lists of Business Firms and Residents in the Towns and Villages of the Territories and a Complete Business Directory of Alaska and Yukon Territories (Seattle: R.L. Polk & Company, 1924), 93 and 537, http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016), in Polk's 1923-24 Alaska-Yukon Gazetteer and Business Directory: Containing Alphabetical Lists of Business Firms and Private Citizens [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016).
[5] “Charles Quinton Dies in Seattle,” Anchorage Daily Times, December 16, 1952, 2.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Charles Quinton, Washington, Select Death Certificates, 1907-1960 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016); and Charles E. Quinton, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016); and Bessie G. Quinton, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 18, 2016).
Sources
This biographical sketch of Charles E. Quinton is based on an essay which originally appeared in John Bagoy's Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 190-191. See also the Charles F. Quinton file, Bagoy Family Pioneer Files (2004.11), Box 6, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK. Photographs courtesy of the Quinton family. Edited by Mina Jacobs, 2012. Note: edited, revised, and expanded by Bruce Parham, September 18, 2016.
Preferred citation: Bruce Parham, ed., “Quinton, Charles E. ‘Charley’,” Cook Inlet Historical Society, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, http://www.alaskahistory.org.
Major support for Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, provided by: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Atwood Foundation, Cook Inlet Historical Society, and the Rasmuson Foundation. This educational resource is provided by the Cook Inlet Historical Society, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt association. Contact us at the Cook Inlet Historical Society, by mail at Cook Inlet Historical Society, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, 625 C Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 or through the Cook Inlet Historical Society website, www.cookinlethistory.org.