Quinton Collection Processed by Amy Barlan and Valerie Higgins Summer 2007 Reprocessed by Michael Kozak Fall 2008 Table of Contents Collection Information Historical Sketch Scope and Content Note Box and Folder Inventory

Collection Information
Volume of Collection:	One Box.
Collection Dates:	1898-2007.
Restrictions:	Some brittle documents. Use photocopies unless authorized by Librarian / Archivist.
Reproduction Rights:	Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the McLean County Museum of History.
Location:	Archives
Notes:	For additional information, see: Photographs Items 1.5.9, 1.14.9, 1.19.8, 1.30.10, 1.37.8

Historical Sketch

James Richard Quinton's mother, Helen Eugenia Haynes, was born on June 8, 1898 to George E. Haynes and Stella Robinson Haynes in Shirley, Illinois. She had three siblings, George, Margaret, and Esther. After graduating from Illinois State Normal University in 1920, Helen E. Haynes married John Ralph Quinton on July 14 of that same year. Her husband, who went by the name Ralph, was born on July 8, 1895 in Heyworth, Illinois to William and Adda Russum Quinton. After spending the summer of 1920 traveling to Yellowstone National Park and other places around the country, Ralph and Helen Quinton returned to Heyworth, Illinois, where they lived and worked on the Sunny Slopes Guernsey Farm owned by the Quinton family. The primary function of the farm was to raise Guernsey cattle and Percheron horses, but the family also bred hogs, kept bees to produce honey, and raised crops like beans, corn, and oats. In addition to his work on the farm, Ralph Quinton served several terms on the local school and village boards and was a charter member of the McLean County Farm Bureau. The couple had three children, Eleanor Jean, James Richard, and William E. Eleanor Quinton was married to Preston James Walton on March 29, 1941. James Richard Quinton, who was born on February 18, 1923 and went by the name Richard, attended Illinois State Normal University, where he met Mary Alice Glenn, his future wife. However, Richard Quinton decided to leave the university to join the Air Force in 1942. Bill Quinton would also later begin training as a pilot.    Richard Quinton enlisted on December 12, 1942, and on February 18, 1943 received orders to report to Chicago for active duty. In Chicago, he boarded a train that took him to a basic training center in Fresno, California, where he joined the 801st Training Group at the Army Air Forces Basic Training Camp Number 8. After receiving physical exams and vaccinations, he began basic physical training, which covered skills like firing a machine gun and throwing hand grenades. Around April 16, 1943, he was moved to Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah, where he attended lectures and classes. His day started at 7:15 in the morning with breakfast, followed by math at 8:00, medical aid at 9:00, a library study period at 10:00, military courtesy at 11:00, physical education at 12:00, lunch between 1:00 and 2:15, English at 3:00, another library study period, an hour and a half drill, and finally dinner between 6:30 and 7:15.    Around July 12, 1943, Richard Quinton completed his work at Logan, Utah and was transferred to Santa Ana Army Air Base in Santa Ana, California for his pre-flight training, where he was part of Squadron 22. After two weeks of mental, physical, and psychological tests that, according to Richard Quinton's letters, about a quarter of the squadron did not pass, the men were divided into different classes. Quinton was assigned to Squadron 68, Flight B and was given the supervision of several other cadets. Quinton and the other men then began further training that included hikes in the nearby mountains, poison gas drills, and learning Morse code. In late August, Quinton had to spend a week in the hospital due to a high fever and infected throat, but was able to make up the exams he missed and remain in his squadron.    Around October 2, 1943, Quinton finished his pre-flight training in Santa Ana and moved on to Ryan Field in Tucson, Arizona for his primary training, where he was part of Squadron 3, class 44-D. After being introduced to his instructor and starting up his plane for the first time on October 5, he began flying for the first time the next day using training planes. On October 24, he made his first solo flight, an event he recounted with enthusiasm in a letter to his mother. Quinton's training in this location included flying in different kinds of planes, including Link Trainers and C.T.D.s, and learning various maneuvers and "acrobatics," such as chandlers, lazy-eights, stalls, snap rolls, slow rolls, and loops. By late November, Quinton wrote that he had been judged by his check riders to be the best pilot in his forty-man flight.    On December 6, 1943, Richard Quinton and the rest of his flight left Tucson for Minter Field Basic Flying School just northwest of Bakersfield, California. This was the first time Quinton was in an environment run entirely by the army with no civilian workers of any kind. After a few physical exams, he began further training, attending lectures in the mornings and flying in the afternoons. He started flying BTs, which were heavier, larger planes than he had flown previously, and later began learning formation flying. However, on December 15, 1943, Quinton was grounded for over a week due to problems with his ears caused by a head cold and flu, and he was grounded again on December 30 when he continued to have problems with his ears. Even when he was not grounded during this month, his flying time was limited due to weather conditions, and he was ultimately only able to accumulate seven hours of flying time during December. As a result, he was moved back to Squadron 6, Class 44-E when this new group arrived at Minter Field in January of 1944. In his letters from January and February of 1944, Quinton comments on the lack of discipline among the cadets due to their resentment of the officers and writes of his own waning enthusiasm for flying. On February 7 he started night flying, and by March 9 he had completed the required number of flight hours and passed his instrument check, allowing him to graduate from Basic.    On March 13, 1944, Richard Quinton arrived at Pecos Army Air Field in Pecos, Texas for Advanced training. While there, he would do about 80 hours of flying, including night formations, night cross-country, and further instrument training, though initially he and the other cadets performed menial work. Once they began flying, the schedule was demanding, with the cadets sometimes solidly scheduled from 5:20 a.m. to 10:20 p.m., and some of the cross-country flights took them over hundreds of miles. In April, Quinton became a flight sergeant and was given the responsibility of supervising 40 men. Quinton graduated with the E-Class on May 23, 1944, at which point he was also made a second lieutenant. His mother came to Pecos, Texas to attend the event, and afterwards Quinton went home for seven days before resuming his duties.    After returning from his trip home, Quinton went to Kingman Army Air Field in Kingman, Arizona in early June. Kingman was primarily a gunner school, and he spent most of his time flying gunners and aerial photographers. He also flew planes between Kingman and Yucca, Arizona, and spent time in the hospital again to have his tonsils removed. While he was recovering from this operation, he received news of the death of John H. Quinton, who was probably his great-uncle, on July 7, 1944.    On July 27, 1944, Richard Quinton left Arizona for Lincoln, Nebraska, where he attended lectures and trained in high-altitude chambers. There was less for him to do here than there had been at previous army bases, however, and his letters from August of 1944 often refer to the monotony of his time in Lincoln and his own boredom. On September 10, 1944, Quinton was relocated to Biggs Field in Texas, and for the first time no men that he knew from his last location came with him. Here he began a demanding schedule of six-hour training missions on a B-17, in some cases flying three of these missions a day, and was part of crew number 8227, which consisted of ten men. His flights often took him outside the state, and while he was at Biggs field he flew over California, Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Mexico. He would ultimately accumulate about 150 hours of flying time in this location. He also spent time in ground school lectures on confidential material he could not divulge to his family. In his letters, Quinton indicated that about half the crews at Biggs Field would be sent to India and half to England, but that he had no way of knowing where he would go. Nonetheless, he wrote to his mother that he was eager to go overseas and use his training. He also commented on the upcoming 1944 presidential election, in which he voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and described the president's popularity among the soldiers.    Richard Quinton's crew left Biggs Field for Lincoln, Nebraska, in early December, and from January 1, 1945 onwards their mail was censored. Quinton and his crew went to New York City in mid-January 1945, and shortly afterwards shipped out overseas. While he was out of the country, Quinton's family received his $150 a month base pay while he lived only on his flying pay. He described his duties on the ship as "light" and wrote that he spent most of his time playing cards. Once he arrived in England, he was part of the Eighth Air Force as a B-17 pilot. He was initially in Scotland, but by July was stationed near Manchester. Although the information he could include in his letters was limited, he indicated that he flew nearly every day, sometimes spending fifteen hours straight in the air. The missions Quinton and the other American pilots flew were mostly during the morning and afternoon, while members of the RAF primarily flew missions at night. Although he had little free time, Quinton occasionally received two or three day passes, and so was able to spend his birthday in London and went to hear Winston Churchill speak on June 27, 1945. He flew a total of thirty-five combat missions over Germany during his tour of duty, some of which he later indicated were during the Battle of the Bulge. He was ultimately awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, five Air Medals, and five Battle Stars for his service.    Richard Quinton had returned to the United States and was in San Antonio by late September of 1945, where he remained until he was discharged around October 15, 1945. Richard Quinton and Mary Alice Glenn were married on June 16, 1946, after which they moved to Michigan, where Richard Quinton received a B.S. in Animal Science from Michigan State College. He would later do graduate work at the University of Arizona and served as a farm advisor in Arizona's Yuma County during the 1950s and 1960s. Mary Quinton had completed her degree from ISNU in Home Economics by the time of their marriage, and after they returned to the Heyworth area she taught Home Economics at various Unit 5 school districts, including the Hudson, Carlock, Normal Community, and Clinton schools. They had six children, Janice Henling, James Quinton, Dr. Jon Quinton, Capt. Jay Quinton, Joyce O'Dea, and Jerry Quinton, and nineteen grandchildren. Richard Quinton's mother, Helen Quinton, died on December 19, 1960, and his father, John Ralph Quinton, died on February 13, 1989. Richard and Mary Quinton celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary in 2006.

Scope and Contents Note

The J. R. Quinton Collection consists of one box with thirty-eight folders. It primarily contains letters written by J. Richard Quinton to his mother, Mrs. Helen Quinton, during his time in the United States Air Force from 1943 to 1945. It also contains letters sent to J. Richard Quinton while in the service and other miscellaneous family correspondence ranging from 1898 to 1953. In addition to letters, this correspondence includes postcards, matchbook covers, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, wedding and graduation invitations, pieces of fabric, and other ephemera. Folder 1 contains background materials for the collection consisting of newspaper articles, obituaries, and records of J. Richard Quinton's enlistment. Folder 2 letters from J. Richard Quinton during February and March of 1943. Folder 3 letters from J. Richard Quinton during April of 1943. Folder 4 letters from J. Richard Quinton during May of 1943. Folder 5 letters from J. Richard Quinton during June of 1943. Folder 6 letters from J. Richard Quinton during July of 1943. Folder 7 letters from J. Richard Quinton during August of 1943. Folder 8 letters from J. Richard Quinton during September of 1943. Folder 9 letters from J. Richard Quinton during October of 1943. Folder 10 letters from J. Richard Quinton during November of 1943. Folder 11 letters from J. Richard Quinton during December of 1943. Folder 12 letters from J. Richard Quinton during January of 1944. Folder 13 letters from J. Richard Quinton during February of 1944. Folder 14 letters from J. Richard Quinton during March of 1944. Folder 15 letters from J. Richard Quinton during April of 1944. Folder 16 letters from J. Richard Quinton during May of 1944. Folder 17 letters from J. Richard Quinton during June of 1944. Folder 18 letters from J. Richard Quinton during July of 1944. Folder 19 letters from J. Richard Quinton during August of 1944. Folder 20 letters from J. Richard Quinton during September of 1944. Folder 21 letters from J. Richard Quinton during October of 1944. Folder 22 letters from J. Richard Quinton during November of 1944. Folder 23 letters from J. Richard Quinton during December of 1944. Folder 24 letters from J. Richard Quinton during 1945. Folder 25 letters from J. Richard Quinton and Mary A. Quinton during 1946. Folder 26 letters to J. Richard Quinton during 1943. Folder 27 letters to J. Richard Quinton during 1944. Folder 28 general correspondence, excluding J. Richard Quinton, to Ralph and Helen Quinton during 1943 and 1944. Folder 29 correspondence to Mr. and Mrs. George E. Haynes from 1898 to 1907. Folder 30 correspondence to Helen E. Haynes from 1907-1913, including letters from friends or relatives in China. Folder 31 correspondence to Helen E. Haynes from 1915 to 1920. Folder 32 correspondence to Helen Quinton (formerly Helen E. Haynes) from 1920. Folder 33 correspondence to Helen Quinton from 1921 to1923. Folder 34 correspondence to Helen Quinton from 1924 to 1939. Folder 35 correspondence to Adda Quinton from 1920. Folder 36 miscellaneous correspondence. Folder 37 other miscellaneous materials. Folder 38 scraps of cloth.

Box and Folder Inventory

Folder 1:	Collection Background
1.1.1	Notification to Mrs. Helen Quinton of James Richard Quinton's enlistment; December 12, 1942; 1 page, 1 envelope.
1.1.2	"Orders for Active Duty" from the War Department to JRQ; February 18, 1943; 1 page, 1 envelope.
1.1.3	"John H. Quinton," July 8, 1944; The Pantagraph; 1 page.
1.1.4	"Mrs. Ralph Quinton," December 20, 1960; The Pantagraph; 1 page.
1.1.5	"John R. Quinton," February 14, 1989; The Pantagraph; 1 page.
1.1.6	"Quintons to Celebrate 60th Anniversary;" June 17, 2006; newspaper clipping; 1 page.
1.1.7	Letter from JRQ to Greg Koos; April 10, 2007; 1 page.