Joseph Edward Thornton's cremated remains were never taken after his death and are still available at Oregon State Hospital to be claimed by anyone who is related. His closest living relatives are his great grandchildren and descendants of his siblings.

Joseph was born in Oregon in 1875. His mother, Susannah Chenoweth, was born in Iowa in 1839. His father, Rev. William Edward Thornton, was born in Missouri in 1841. William & Susannah were married on 2/18/1858 in Dekalb County, Missouri.

Joseph's mother had 11 or 12 children with 7 being alive in 1900 and 1910. Among her children were: twins Samuel Jeptha and Martha Ann "Mary" (born in 1859), Elderada "Ella" (1865), Orville Gideon (about 1868), Nancy Susan "Ann" (1869), Malinda Sarah (1872), Joseph (1875), Olivia A. (about 1878), and Bertha A. (1881). Samuel, Martha and Ella were born in Missouri and the young children were born in Oregon.

In the 1860 census (before Joseph was born), his parents and first two siblings were living in Dekalb County, Missouri where his father was farming surrounded by other Thornton family members who were also farming in the area. Joseph's sister Martha died in Missouri in 1861.

Joseph's family left Missouri for Oregon by oxen drawn wagons in 1865. At the time of the 1870 census (5 years before Joseph's birth) the Thornton family was farming in the Mount Scott precinct in Douglas County in southern Oregon. The members of the extended Thornton family as well as Chenoweths (his mother's side of the extended family) were farming nearby.

At the time of the 1880 census, Joseph was 5 years old, attending school, living with his parents and siblings in Lookingglass, Douglas County where his father was farming.

About 1896 Joseph married Nettie F. Bates. She was born in Indiana in 1874. They had at least 4 children: Walter Wade (born in Oregon in 1897), Gladys M. (Oregon in 1899), Floyd Seth (Palouse, Washington in September 1900), and Manford Lewis (Washington in 1904). Given the gap between Floyd and Manford it is suspected there may have also been a child born about 1902.

During the 1900 census, Joseph, Nettie and their first 2 children were living in Mount Scott, Douglas County where Joseph was farming. Nettie may have been jailed in 1904 in Spokane for larceny. On 5/20/1906 she died of peritonitis in Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington.

In April 1907 Doctors Day & Brown examined Joseph and indicated he was "dangerous to be at liberty" and said there was "no hope of recovery." On 4/21/1907 he was admitted to the Oregon State Hospital, a residential facility in Salem, Oregon for the treatment of people with mental illness. He reportedly had schizophrenia. Joseph was listed among the patients at the state hospital on the censuses of 1910 - 1940. After being a patient at the institution 42 years he died there of pneumonia on 5/7/1949.

After Nettie's death or after Joseph was institutionalized, his children were sent to live with various relatives. The census of 1910 showed: Floyd was a "boarder" (foster child) in Springfield, Oregon in the home of Palmer and Mary E. Ayres. Walter and Manford were living in Spokane, Washington in the home of their maternal grandmother, Mary Bates Burton. Gladys was living with Joseph's sister Malinda Sarah (Thornton) Wiley and her family in Seattle. Gladys later changed her last name to Wiley.

While Joseph was in the institution, his father died of gallstone and appendicitis in Lane County, Oregon on 2/27/1910. He was buried at Oak Creek Cemetery in Glide, Oregon. Joseph's mother died of the flu in 1928. She was buried with her husband. Joseph was not named among the surviving relatives in her obituary nor the obituary of his sister Ella Brosi in 1926. It appears some members of the family disassociated themselves completely from Joseph to the point of not acknowledging he was alive.

Joseph's son Walter was a seaman in the US Navy and served as a cook on the USS Orion. His normal residence was Seattle. He died of tuberculosis at a veteran's hospital in Arizona on 7/4/1927. He was 29. He had never married. He was buried at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park in Seattle.

Joseph's daughter Gladys married Albert Ellis in 1918. They had 2 children Henry (in 1920) and Albert Earl (in 1922). She died of TB on 10/12/1935 in Seattle. On 2/8/1937 her husband died of pneumonia complicated by flu and syphilis. Albert & Gladys were buried at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park in Seattle where her brother Walter was buried. Her son Albert Ellis died on 9/1/2007. Her son Henry Ellis died on 2/6/2023. It is likely neither of Joseph's grandson's knew anything about his circumstances.

Son Manford joined the merchant marines and worked on steam ships traveling around the world in the 1930s. He died in Gorgas, Panama on 12/29/1940. It seems he never married.

The only one of Joseph's children to survive him was his son Floyd who was struggling with his own mental health issues. Floyd, a logger, married Zelda (Burke) Pollman in 1924. Floyd and his wife never had children. She alleged desertion in 1955 when she filed for divorce. In 1957 he was institutionalized at Eastern Oregon State (Psychiatric) Hospital in Pendleton, Oregon. He was diagnosed with chronic brain syndrome. He died at EOSH of a pulmonary embolism in his calf on 2/28/1963 and was buried at West Klickitat Cemetery in White Salmon, Washington.

More information about the 3500 unclaimed cremains at OSH is available at http://www.oregon.gov/oha/amh/osh/pages/cremains.aspx A book by David Maisel and a documentary by Ondi Timoner & Robert James, both entitled "Library of Dust" also provide more information.