Capt. Richard B. Holbrook Jr.'s second family in South Dakota

Capt. Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr., the Puget Sound and Alaska steamboat master, husband of Jessie (Clifford) Holbrook and father of Dick and Philip, drops out of the Seattle records after 1919. He died in 1923 at Bismarck, North Dakota, a farmer of Pollock, South Dakota, with a second wife, Maud, and two boys, Douglas and Donald, while Jessie was being called a widow in Seattle. Who was Maud, did they marry, and was he ever divorced from Jessie? Did the family in Seattle know? And who were Douglas and Donald, and what became of them? (Maud and the boys were identified on 9 Oct 2026; see "Who Maud was." How and why it happened is still being worked out.)

Takeaway

Richard Holbrook Jr., steamboat captain on Puget Sound and the Alaska routes, disappeared from the Seattle records after 1919. A death at Bismarck, North Dakota, in September 1923 fit him on age and name, but the Pollock, South Dakota, farmer who died there had a wife named Maud and two young sons, and Jessie was already being called a widow back in Seattle. The death was set aside as another man's. Then his sister Mollie's typescript turned up. She had written, in the 1930s, that he died "in No. Dakota, Sept 22'23," the right state and the right day, a day the FamilySearch tree gets wrong. The death certificate, when it was found, confirmed it: his birthday, his birthplace on Whidbey Island, his parents, all in agreement with records made in his own lifetime. He had died of typhoid fever. The 1922 "widow" turned out to be a reporter's word that the directories did not repeat until 1925, two years after the death.

Once the death was settled, the question was who Maud was and where she came from. A family story posted online in 1998 by Richard's own grandson, Dan Lowe Holbrook, placed her in a coffee shop near the Seattle ferry slips, where Richard had been running the Bremerton boats. A Canadian entry card showed him crossing at Seattle in March 1919, bound for Fort McMurray, Alberta, "to make a home." Maud turned out to be Maud Elizabeth Noel, daughter of an English-born optician in Seattle, who had married a blacksmith named John Morilon in 1910. The evidence does not point to Donald and Douglas being Richard's own sons; both were born during Maud's marriage to Morilon, and Douglas's birth certificate names Morilon as his father. The Morilons were living apart by 1918, and Morilon remarried in 1920 calling himself a widower. Neither Richard nor Maud appears to have been divorced from their first spouses.

Within about three months of Richard's death, Maud married Hiram Wallace, a farmer of the Pollock neighbourhood, and lived near there for the rest of her life. The boys grew up as Morilons, never Holbrooks, which is why every search for Douglas and Donald Holbrook turned up nothing. Douglas's obituary, printed in Portland in 2003, remembers "a nomadic childhood" spent across Canada, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and the Dakotas, but names neither Richard nor Wallace, only his father, John R. Morilon. Richard was buried in Spring Valley Cemetery at Pollock after a Presbyterian service, in what appears to be an unmarked grave; Maud, with two boys on a prairie farm, probably had nothing to spare for a stone. No Canadian record found so far places any of them north of the border, though the indexes for those years are incomplete. Why a lifelong Puget Sound mariner would set off for Fort McMurray to make a home remains an open question.

The case

Who died at Bismarck

The man who died at Bismarck on 22 Sept 1923 was Capt. Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. His death certificate, given by his wife Maud, agrees point for point with records made in Richard's own lifetime, two of them in his own words:

	Death certificate, 1923	Richard's own records
Name	Richard Holbrook	Richard B. Holbrook (1900); signed Richard Blackmer Holbrook (1918)
Birthday	"Sept 16"	"Sept 16th, 1872" (draft card, 1918)
Age	51	born Sept 1872, so 51 on 22 Sept 1923
Birthplace	Washington	"Whidby Island, Wash." (1900); "Island County, Wash." (Canadian entry card)
Father	Holbrook	Richard Holbrook (1900)
Mother	maiden name "Phillips," born in Maine	"Hattie Phillips" (1900, his own answer); Harriet Phillips Low, born at Deer Isle, Maine

Phillips was his mother's middle name, not her maiden name, which was Low. That Richard gave her as "Hattie Phillips" himself in 1900, and his wife gave "Phillips" in 1923, is a family slip a stranger would not share. And his sister Mollie, typing the family history in the 1930s, has him dying "in No. Dakota, Sept 22'23": the right state and the right day, a day the FamilySearch tree gets wrong.

What else agrees

• The Bismarck Tribune: "Richard Holbrook of Pollock, S. D. age 51," a farmer, survived by his wife and two sons, Douglas, 7, and Donald, 5.
• The family story posted by Dan Lowe Holbrook in 1998 names him "Richard Blackmer Holbrook," with his wife Maude and sons Donald and Douglas, and says he met Maud in Seattle near the ferry slips, where in 1917-18 Richard was a master on the Bremerton boats.
• He is last in the Seattle directory in 1919; from 1920 only Jessie is listed.

Objections, answered

• "Jessie was a widow in 1922." A reporter wrote so, in a story about her son. The January 1920 census calls her married, and the directories do not call her a widow until 1925, two years after the Bismarck death.
• "His father wasn't born in Maine." He wasn't: Richard Sr. was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Maud had that wrong; the mother's birthplace, Maine, is right.
• "He had lived there two days." The line asks how long he had lived in the city where he died, Bismarck. He had been in the hospital there two days; his home was Pollock.
• "The forum post says August." It names Bismarck, Pollock, Maude, Donald and Douglas; the certificate and the newspaper give 22 September.
• "It's a common name." The match is not on name and age alone. The birthday, the birthplace, "Phillips" and Maine, his sister's account and the family story all point to him, and no other Richard Holbrook born on 16 Sept in Washington has turned up.

Who lived where

The addresses so far, from the directories, censuses, draft cards and certificates. Before about 1915 the Seattle directories did not name wives.

Year	Richard	Jessie and the family	Maud Noel and her family
1906	560 Mercer; captain of the Perdita
1910	560 Mercer (directory); Kitsap County with Jessie and the boys (census, April)	Kitsap County	Aug: Maude E. Noel, of Seattle, marries John R. Morilon
1911			Morilon, blacksmith, and her father Samuel H. Noel, optician, both at 107 1st Av N. July: her first son, John Noel (Donald), born at 4023 11th Av NE
1913			Samuel H. Noel, optician, at Auburn
1915-17	Alaska each season, Seattle each winter
1916	Susitna River, Alaska (summer)		Aug: Douglas born at Helena, Montana; the Morilons at 1512 Lewis St
1917	8629 51st Av S, with Jessie	8629 51st Av S; his mother Harriet at 3934 Warsaw
1918	560 Mercer, with Jessie (draft card, Sept)	560 Mercer, with Harriet (d. there Nov 1918) and Dick	Sept: Maude at 2208 14th Av W; Morilon at 1117 3d Av. Dec: her mother dies, divorced
1919	560 Mercer, with Jessie	560 Mercer
1920	not in the census anywhere searched	Jan: Jessie heads her own household on Mercer St, owned, "married" (census); "Jessie Mrs, 560 Mercer" (directory)	Not in the census anywhere searched. May: Morilon, of East Helena, remarries at Helena as a "widower." Her father at Algona with his second wife
1922	not listed	Jessie, a laundress, 225 N Broadway; Phil at 560 Mercer
1923	Pollock, S. Dak.; dies at Bismarck, Sept		Maud Holbrook at Pollock
1923			Late 1923 [?]: Maud marries Hiram M. Wallace, of the Pollock neighbourhood
1924			Aug: her father dies at Algona
1925-26		"Jessie (wid Richd B)," 560 Mercer
1930			Apr: the Wallaces in Sioux County, N. Dak., beside Pollock, with Donald and Douglas
1935-45			The Wallaces in Campbell County, near Pollock; by 1940 Donald and Douglas in Portland
1950			Maude E. Wallace, Corson County, S. Dak.

Who Maud was

Ruled 9 Oct 2026 (Research decisions). Maud Holbrook of Pollock was Maud Elizabeth Noel, Mrs. John R. Morilon, who married Hiram M. Wallace of Pollock in 1923. No single record names her both ways, but the chain closes:

When	Where	Record	What it says
Sept 1923	Pollock	Death certificate, Tribune, Pollock obituary	"Mrs Maud Holbrook," with sons Donald and Douglas, survives Richard
1923	Pollock area	South Dakota census card, 1935	Hiram M. Wallace, of Campbell County, married in 1923; wife's maiden name "Maude Noel"
Apr 1930	Sioux County, N. Dak., beside Pollock	U.S. census	Hiram's wife Maud, born in Illinois of English parents; stepson Donald, born in Washington; Douglas, born in Montana
1940	Portland	Donald John Morilon's draft card	Born 19 July 1911, Seattle; his mother "Mrs. Maude Elizabeth Wallace, Pollock"
1911, 1916	Seattle, Helena	Birth certificates	Maud Noel's sons John Noel (Donald) and Douglas Noel Morilon, born on those days and in those places

Two women named Maud, each with sons named Donald and Douglas, at Pollock in the same year, one of them marrying a Pollock man within months, is not a coincidence that can be believed. What is left unexplained is the Tribune's "Donald, age 5": he was 12. The Pollock obituary gives no ages, and it is best set down as a reporter's error: a line taken at a hospital 65 miles from home, worth less than a birth certificate.

The boys were not Richard's

• Donald was born on 19 July 1911, conceived about Oct 1910, two months after Maud married John Morilon (by the reckoning here). He was registered as their son, her first child.
• Douglas was born on 25 Aug 1916 at Helena, where the Morilons were living, and his birth certificate names Morilon. He was conceived about late Nov or early Dec 1915, when Richard was in Seattle for the winter, but nothing puts Maud in Seattle then, and Richard was on the Susitna in Alaska when Douglas was born. As a young man Douglas went to Portland, where his father was living, and called himself "son of J. R. Morilon", which points to Morilon as his father.
• Richard was their stepfather from about 1918 or 1919 to 1923, and Hiram Wallace after him. In 1930 Douglas, who was 7 when Hiram married his mother, was entered as Hiram's own son.

How it probably went

The records stop short of the story. What follows is reasoning from them, each step marked for how much weight it bears. None of it is proven.

1. They met in Seattle about 1917-18. Strong. Richard was a master on the Bremerton boats from Colman Dock in the winters of 1917-18 and 1918; the family story puts Maud in a coffee shop near the ferry slips; she was living apart from Morilon by Sept 1918, in a city where her father and mother lived.
2. They never married. Strong. Both had living spouses. No divorce of Richard and Jessie has been found, in the newspapers or the divorce records (Kathy Jonas), and none of Maud and Morilon; Morilon called himself a widower to remarry in 1920. Maud married Hiram Wallace within about three months of Richard's death, with no estate or divorce to settle first. Why would they need to marry? They were both already married.
3. They went to Canada, 1919-21. Probable. Richard crossed at Seattle for Fort McMurray, Alberta, "to make a home," alone, in March 1919 (his age on the card fits 1919 better than 1918). Douglas remembered a childhood partly in Canada, and nothing puts the Wallaces in Canada later, so it belongs to the Richard years. And the searches for all four in the U.S. census of Jan 1920 were as thorough as an index allows (trail, 9 Oct, "The FamilySearch search"): every Holbrook in South and North Dakota (58 entries); the Richard Holbrooks born 1866-78 in Washington, Montana and Idaho; every Holbrook born in Washington then, anywhere; the Mauds born in Illinois 1886-91 in six states (all of them in five, the first 300 of 640 in Washington); every Douglas born in Montana 1915-18 with a Donald in the house (1,312 households); 2,000 of the 2,667 Donalds born in Washington 1909-13, for a Douglas; and every spelling of Morilon. Nothing. Canada took no census in 1920. They are not in the Canadian census of June 1921 either, so by then they had moved on or were missed. Richard, a mariner, may have taken Maud and the boys north by boat, to British Columbia perhaps, to wait for him.
4. Morilon wrote her off. Probable. By May 1920 his wife and sons had gone, perhaps over the border; he married again at Helena as a "widower." Dead to him, or a convenient fiction.
5. Jessie kept the house. Documented. She owned the house on Mercer Street in 1920 and lived there with her sons and her mother, "married"; she was called a widow in 1922, listed as one from 1925, and remarried in 1928. Richard left the house and family; he did not strip them.
6. Why the Dakotas is not known. Coming back from Alberta, the northern plains were on the way and land was to be had; Douglas remembered harvest crews "wherever they could find work." By 1923 Richard was called "a prominent farmer," which may flatter.
7. Hiram Wallace was no stranger. Probable. He was born near Pollock, farmed in the next townships, was a Presbyterian (Richard's funeral was in the Presbyterian church), and his own marriage of 1920 had ended by 1923, and a woman who had left one husband for another man could as readily have known a third. Whether they were close before Richard died cannot be known from the records.
8. Maud shaped her story. Documented. She took about seven years off her age in the censuses, nearer Hiram's; Douglas was entered as Hiram's son; the boys were Wallaces in 1930 and Morilons as men, and never, so far as any record shows, Holbrooks. That is why every search for Douglas and Donald Holbrook failed.
9. Someone wrote to Seattle. Probable. Richard's sister Mollie knew the day and the state of his death, and Jessie's grandson, 75 years on, knew things no newspaper printed: the coffee shop by the ferry slips, the 600-acre farm, "Glenavon." News went from Pollock to the family, most likely in a letter from Maud.
10. He lies in an unmarked grave. Probable. Find a Grave's photograph of his plot in Spring Valley Cemetery shows grass and no readable stone; he is probably known there only from the cemetery's own records. His father has a marker on Whidbey Island.
11. Kathy Jonas's photographs show Maud with Hiram Wallace and with John Morilon, as they are read here; there is no known photograph of Richard.

Not yet proven

That Richard and Maud were legally married (probably not), and whether either was divorced: he from Jessie, she from Morilon. Where they were from 1919 to 1922, when none of them is in any census found. Why the Dakotas. Where the farm was, and what "Glenavon" was.

That she was his wife rests on three things: her own word as informant ("Mrs Maud Holbrook," with "Husband of" left blank on the certificate), the Tribune's "survived by his wife, and two sons," and the family story told by Jessie's grandson in 1998. No census, marriage or deed shows them together. Could she have been a relative who brought him to the hospital, taken by the reporter for his wife. Against that: she knew his birthday and gave his mother's name as "Phillips," the slip he made himself in 1900; no other Holbrook family is known at Pollock; and Jessie's own side of the family knew him to have had a second wife there and two boys. That they lived as husband and wife is the best reading; that they were legally married is unproven, and Kathy Jonas, who keeps the Clifford family tree, doubts it.

Trail

26 Sep 2026: Jessie called a widow in 1922

A Seattle Times sidebar on the shooting of her son Dick (Dora Dean, 28 Nov 1922) says "Mrs. Holbrook is a widow" ("Mother of Wounded Boy Felt Sure He Was Safe at School," by Dora Dean, Seattle Daily Times). But the January 1920 census had recorded her as married, with her husband not in the household (1920 U.S. census, Seattle, King County, Washington, household of Jessie Holbrook (Mercer Street)). His working life was traced to late November 1918, alive at 560 Mercer Street; no death was found for him in Chronicling America.

26 Sep 2026: The Bismarck death

The FamilySearch tree and the Collins-Reed files give his death as 23 Sep 1923 at Bismarck. The Bismarck Tribune has the record behind it: "Richard Holbrook, Pollock, S. D." entered the hospital (22 Sept 1923, p. 5), and on 24 Sept, under "Death Claims Pollock Man," "Richard Holbrook of Pollock, S. D. age 51, died at a local hospital Saturday evening ... Mr. Holbrook was a prominent farmer of the Pollock neighborhood. He is survived by his wife, and two sons, Douglas, age 7, and Donald, age 5. The remains were taken to Pollock today for burial." Saturday was the 22nd. His age fits a birth in Sept 1872 ("Death Claims Pollock Man," Bismarck Tribune, 24 Sept 1923, p. 5 (and the hospital list of 22 Sept)).

27 Sep 2026: The Seattle directories

Richard is "master mariner h 560 Mercer" in 1918 and 1919. From 1920 only "Jessie Mrs" is listed, not as a widow; the directories first call her "wid Richd B" in 1925 (Seattle city directories (Polk), Holbrook entries).

2 Oct 2026: Ruled another man's

Because Jessie was called a widow ten months before the Bismarck death, and the Pollock farmer had a wife and young sons, the Bismarck death was ruled another Richard Holbrook's and not used. Richard's death was recorded as between 1919 and November 1922, place unknown (Research decisions, 2 Oct 2026). The working guess then was that he had died or disappeared in Alaska.

6 Oct 2026: His sister's typescript

Mollie (Holbrook) Pfeiffer, typing the family history in the 1930s, gives his death twice: "d. Sept. 22, 1923" under his birth (scan 5) and "Died in No. Dakota, Sept 22'23" on her Low chart (scan 95) (Mollie Frances (Holbrook) Pfeiffer, Holbrook-Low family typescript, Books 1-9). That is the Pollock man's day to the day, and the Tribune’s day, not the FamilySearch tree's 23rd, so she was not copying the tree. This is strong evidence for the Bismarck death, and the Pollock man was to be checked before the ruling was kept or changed. The Times' "widow" now looks weaker: a reporter's word, which the directories do not repeat until 1925. A free search of Chronicling America found nothing more on the Pollock man.

7 Oct 2026: The death certificate

The North Dakota certificate of death was found (Certificate of death of Richard Holbrook, Bismarck, Burleigh County, North Dakota, 22 Sept 1923). Richard Holbrook of Pollock, S. Dak., farmer, married, died at the Bismarck Evangelical Hospital on 22 Sept 1923 after two days in the city; born "Sept 16" in Washington, aged 51; father Holbrook, born in Maine; mother's maiden name "Phillips," born in Maine; buried at Pollock. The informant was "Mrs Maud Holbrook, Pollock S. Dakota." His birthday is Richard's, and "Phillips" was his mother Harriet's middle name, which he had given as her surname himself in 1900 ("Hattie Phillips," Marriage return no. 4461, King County, Washington: Richard B. Holbrook and Jessie Clifford, 28 Sept 1900). It is certainly him. The ruling of 2 Oct was set aside (Research decisions, 7 Oct 2026), and his sister's typescript was right.

7 Oct 2026: Seattle, the ferry slips and Fort McMurray

More was found on Ancestry. His WWI draft card (12 Sept 1918) has him a steamship master on the "Navy Yard Boats" [?], the Seattle-Bremerton boats, working from "Room 36 Colman [?] Dock" and living at 560 Mercer with Jessie as his nearest relative (WWI draft registration of Richard Blackmer Holbrook, Seattle, 12 Sept 1918). A Canadian entry card stamped at Seattle on 14 March 1918 (his age, 46, fits 1919 better) has him bound for Fort McMurray, Alberta, "to make a home" (Canadian Immigration Service border entry (Form 30) of Richard Holbrook, Seattle, 14 March 1918 [?]). And a GenForum post of 1998, signed Dan Lowe Holbrook, gives the family story: Richard met Maud in Seattle, where she worked in a coffee shop near the ferry slips, married her and went to a 600-acre wheat farm in the Glenavon area north of Pollock ("Richard 'RB' Holbrook, Pollock South Dakota 1923," GenForum Holbrook board, posted by Dan Holbrook, 21 April 1998). The ferry slips fit his work on the Bremerton boats. A Richard Holbrook in the 1915 North Dakota census, in Albert Holbrook's household in Williams County, has nothing to tie him to Pollock or Seattle, and is probably another man.

7 Oct 2026: The Seattle pages

The pages themselves were added: the 1919, 1920 and 1922 directories and the Times clipping (Seattle city directories (Polk), Holbrook entries, "Mother of Wounded Boy Felt Sure He Was Safe at School," by Dora Dean, Seattle Daily Times). In 1922 Jessie is a laundress, rooming at 225 North Broadway, while her son Philip, a seaman, still lives at 560 Mercer. The same pages list a Maud(e) L. Holbrook in Seattle: wife of Jos. R. Holbrook in 1919, "Maud Mrs" in 1920, a clerk at the National City Co. in 1922. Her name alone does not make her Richard's Maud, and she was in Seattle in 1922, but she has to be ruled out.

7 Oct 2026: Not found as Holbrooks

FamilySearch and Ancestry were searched for Maud, Douglas and Donald Holbrook (births about 1914-1920, residence South Dakota, the 1920 census, World War II draft cards, Social Security applications) and found none of them. A search of Chronicling America for Maud, Maude, Douglas and Donald Holbrook in the Dakota and Washington papers found nothing either. They may have taken another name, if Maud remarried, or be indexed under a misspelling (the death certificate's typewriter printed "Holbreek"). The Seattle Star's page of 29 Nov 1922 was added too: "Holbrook's mother, who lives at 560 Mercer st., remained at his bedside during Tuesday night" ("Here's More About U Student" and "Cop Excited, Say Students," Seattle Star, 29 Nov 1922, p. 7). The Star does not call her a widow.

8 Oct 2026: The free state indexes

Searched by Claude, free and online:

• Washington State Digital Archives, marriages. Richard B. Holbrook's only marriage in Washington is the one to Jessie Clifford in 1900; no Richard Holbrook married a Maud. Three Maud Holbrooks married before 1945, none of them to Richard: Maud L. Leonhardt to C. Ray Holbrook (Clark County, 1913), Maud Smith to Earl Holbrook (Cowlitz, 1912) and a Maud Holbrook to Robert Vallespin (Clark, 1914). The first is very likely the Maude L. Holbrook of the Seattle directories, wife of "Jos R" (Ray) Holbrook, which would rule her out. Washington's online divorce records begin in 1968, so a divorce of Richard and Jessie would be in the King County court files, which are not online.
• South Dakota's index of births over 100 years old. No Douglas or Donald Holbrook, and no Holbrook birth in Campbell County at all, so the boys were probably born outside South Dakota. No Campbell County birth of 1914-1920 to a mother named Maud fits. But there was a Holbrook family next door: Marion Holbrook, born 17 Dec 1918 in Walworth County, which borders Campbell County, daughter of Bert Holbrook and Lillian Sutter (a delayed record, filed 1977). No tie to Richard is known.

8 Oct 2026: When were the boys born?

Worked back from the Bismarck notice of 24 Sept 1923: if their ages were exact, Douglas, "age 7," was born between late Sept 1915 and Sept 1916, and Donald, "age 5," between late Sept 1917 and Sept 1918. Richard spent the seasons of 1915, 1916 and 1917 in Alaska, roughly May to October or November, and the winters in Seattle. A Seattle-winter conception puts a birth between about August and January. So, by inference, Douglas was most likely born in Sept 1915 to Jan 1916; Donald between late Sept 1917 and Sept 1918, though probably not Feb to June 1918, which would mean a conception in Alaska in the summer of 1917. That holds only if Maud stayed in Seattle, and a sweep of every Alaska paper on Chronicling America for 1915-1920 found no sign of her there: Richard travels alone on every passenger list (1916, 1917), and the only Holbrook wives are a "Mrs. B. L. Holbrook" leaving Juneau in Dec 1917 and a "Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook" of the forestry service at Cordova in 1920, other people. His Canadian entry card shows he crossed alone, too: the section for "particulars when family accompanying" is blank.

9 Oct 2026: Maud Noel?

A candidate turned up on Ancestry, through the record hints on Maud in the Ancestry tree. Maude E. Noel, 21, born in Illinois, daughter of Samuel H. Noel and Elizabeth N. Todd, both born in England, married John R. Morilon, 28, a blacksmith born in Kansas, at the Presbyterian manse in Seattle on 12 Aug 1910, with her father as a witness (Certificate of marriage, King County, Washington: John R. Morilon and Maude E. Noel, 12 Aug 1910, Marriage certificate no. 28246, King County, Washington: John R. Morilon and Maude E. Noel, 12 Aug 1910). Their son "Douglas Noel" was born at Helena, Montana, on 25 Aug 1916, her second child; the father, John Wendall Morilon, was a sanitary inspector at the East Helena smelter [?] (Montana certificate of birth: Douglas Noel [Morilon], Helena, 25 Aug 1916 (and the Lewis and Clark County register)). On 12 Sept 1918, the day Richard registered for the draft at 560 Mercer, John Randolph Morilon, a barber, named "Maude Noel Morilon (wife)" as his nearest relative, at a different address from his own (WWI draft registration of John Randolph Morilon, Seattle, 12 Sept 1918).

An Ancestry tree that has her goes further (Ancestry member tree with Maude Elizabeth Noel (1888-1986) as a wife of Richard Blackmer Holbrook (very probably Kathy Jonas's tree "Clifford-Dole")): born 18 Dec 1888 at Braidwood, Illinois; sons Donald, born July 1911 at Seattle, and Douglas; her mother's death at Seattle on 25 Dec 1918; a marriage to Hiram Marion Wallace, dated 1922; "the death of her husband Richard Blackmer Holbrook"; her father's death at Algona, Washington, in Aug 1924; two Wallace sons, born at Fort Yates, North Dakota, in 1927 and 1932; Wallace's death at Mobridge, South Dakota, in 1960; and her own at Hillsboro, Oregon, on 6 Mar 1986.

Checked by Claude in the free indexes. The Washington State Digital Archives have the 1910 marriage, and the death of Samuel Hall Noel at Algona, King County, in 1924, as the tree says; but no birth for any Morilon, so nothing yet for a Donald born in 1911, and no death for an Elizabeth Noel in 1918. South Dakota's index of births over 100 years old has a Hiram Wallace born in Campbell County, Pollock's county, on 22 Mar 1895, son of Frank Wallace and Mary Clover (a delayed record, state file no. 604235, filed 1942). A Hiram Wallace and Velma Young had two children there: Frank Wright, 12 Feb 1921 (no. 659857), and Betty Wallace, 24 Feb 1922 (no. 661509).

What fits: a Maud of Seattle, living apart from her husband by 1918, while Richard worked the Seattle boats; a son Douglas born on 25 Aug 1916, exactly "age 7" on 22 Sept 1923; a son Donald; and a later life with a Campbell County man, at Fort Yates and Mobridge, each 20 to 25 miles from Pollock. What doesn't fit, yet: no record names her as Maud Holbrook. The tree's Donald, born in 1911, would have been 12 in 1923, not 5, although Douglas, her second child, did have an elder brother or sister. And a Wallace marriage in 1922 can't be right if she was Mrs. Holbrook in Sept 1923, and the Campbell County Hiram Wallace was having children with Velma Young in 1921 and 1922. So she is a strong candidate, not proven. If she is the one, Douglas was John Morilon's son and Richard's stepson, and the birth windows of 8 Oct, which assumed Richard was the father, fall away.

9 Oct 2026: Morilon was another man; the Wallaces in 1950

Could "John R. Morilon" have been Richard under another name, ten years younger? He could not. John Randolph Morilon registered for the draft at Seattle on 12 Sept 1918, the same day as Richard, before another board: a barber, born 20 May 1882, of medium height and build, with hazel eyes and brown hair (WWI draft registration of John Randolph Morilon, Seattle, 12 Sept 1918). Richard registered at 560 Mercer as a steamship master, born 16 Sept 1872, tall and stout, with blue eyes and grey hair (WWI draft registration of Richard Blackmer Holbrook, Seattle, 12 Sept 1918). And in the summer of 1916, when Douglas's father was a sanitary inspector at the East Helena smelter, living in Helena, Richard was master of the B. and B. No. 3 on the Susitna in Alaska (Alaska and Seattle newspapers on Capt. Richard B. Holbrook's Alaska seasons, 1915-1918). The wedding of 1910 was at the Presbyterian manse at 1819 Harvard Avenue, Seattle, by the minister Wallace H. Lee; the witnesses were the bride's father, S. H. Noel, and a Mrs. H. C. Curry [?], not Morilons. The groom named his parents, John Morilon of Maryland and Clara McClellan of Pennsylvania, and a Clara Morilon married Chas. W. Ostrand in King County in 1923 (Washington State Digital Archives), perhaps his mother. Kansas kept no state birth records before 1911, so he will have no birth certificate; the 1900 census at Leavenworth would show him with his parents.

The Wallaces were also found in the 1950 census, in Corson County, South Dakota, across the Missouri from Pollock: Hiram M. Wallace, 55, a sawmill manager; his wife Maude E., 60, born in Illinois; and their sons Lew E., 22, and Gayle W., 17, born in North Dakota (census-1950-corson-county-wallace). So the tree's Wallace family is real, and Hiram Wallace's wife was a Maude E. born in Illinois about 1889 or 1890, as Maude E. Noel was. That joins the tree's Maude Noel to the Wallace household near Pollock by name, age and birthplace. It does not yet join either of them to Maud Holbrook.

9 Oct 2026: Maud Noel's parents' deaths

Searched by Claude in the Washington State Digital Archives. Her mother is "Mrs. E. Noel," who died at Seattle on 25 Dec 1918, aged 50, the day the tree gives (record). Her father is Samuel Hall Noel, who died at Algona, King County, on 2 Aug 1924, aged 63, son of Henry Noel and Katherine Hall, his wife then Donna Noel (record). Both certificates can be seen free on the Archives' site, behind a check that only a person in a browser can pass. A death certificate names an informant and the dead person's address. If Maud gave the particulars for either parent, the certificate will give the surname she was using in Dec 1918, or in Aug 1924, eleven months after Richard's death, and where she lived. Samuel's obituary may name his "daughter, Mrs. Maud ___ of Pollock, S. D."

Two possibilities stay open. First, that Richard and Maud never married, and she simply gave herself as his wife when he died; nobody asked a widow to prove it, and in 1918 each still had a living spouse. Second, that one of the boys was Richard's own. Douglas's birth certificate names Morilon, and Richard was back in Seattle by Dec 1915, when Douglas was conceived; but where Maud was then is not known. If the Bismarck notice is right that Donald was 5, he was born about 1918, when Maud and Morilon were living apart, and the tree's birth in 1911 needs checking.

9 Oct 2026: The Noel death certificates

Both certificates were read (Washington certificate of death: Mrs. E. Noel, King County Hospital, Seattle, 25 Dec 1918, Washington certificate of death: Samuel Hall Noel, Algona, King County, 2 Aug 1924). Neither names Maud. Her mother died at the King County Hospital, divorced, aged 50, with the hospital as informant, and was buried at Auburn; her father, an optician born in England in 1861, died at Algona with his second wife Donna as informant, and was buried at Mt. View Cemetery, Auburn. Still to try: their obituaries, which usually list the children, and the Auburn cemetery's records.

9 Oct 2026: The Seattle directories, 1906-1917

The directories on Ancestry were searched (Seattle city directories (Polk), Holbrook entries, 1906-1917, Seattle city directory (Polk), 1911: Samuel H. Noel and John R. Morilan [Morilon]). Richard was "capt str Perdita h 560 Mercer" in 1906 and "master Straits S S Co h 560 Mercer" in 1910, the year the census found the family in Kitsap County. In 1917 he is "Richd B (Jessie L) master mariner h 8629 51st av S," and his mother "Harriet P (wid Richd B) r 3934 Warsaw." So the "outside" address in his Pioneers notice was his and Jessie's home, not Maud's, and that lead is closed. The family is at 560 Mercer in 1906 and 1910 and again from 1918 to 1926, and they probably kept the house throughout. A man with two addresses (a mariner's Seattle address, his family elsewhere) has room for a second life; the table in the case above now tracks who lived where.

In 1911, "Saml H optician h 206-107 1st av N" (apartment 206) and "Morilan John R blksmth Pac Ry Co h 107 1st av N": a year after the wedding, Maud's husband and her father lived in the same building, and she was presumably with her husband. It is one more record of Morilon as a real man. Samuel was also found in 1913 at a business address shared with a lawyer and a physician.

9 Oct 2026: Another Maud with a Donald and a Douglas

A search of the 1920 census found a Maud E. with sons Donald and Douglas at Aberdeen, South Dakota, about 90 miles east of Pollock: the household of Charles H. Worf [?], 34, a teacher at the normal school, with Maud E., 28, and sons Donald M., 7, Wallace E., 4, and Douglas L., 3 (1920 U.S. census, Aberdeen, Brown County, South Dakota, household of Charles H. Worf [?] (not Maud Noel)). She is not Maud Noel, who was born in Illinois about 1889 of English parents; this Maud was born in Minnesota about 1891, her father in Indiana and her mother in Pennsylvania. Nor is she likely to be Richard's Maud: she had a husband living in 1920 and three sons, and her Donald would have been about 11 in 1923, not 5. The 1930 census of the Worfs would close it.

The lesson is the one in the research rules: a Maud with a Donald and a Douglas turned up twice in a day, so those names, and Douglas's age, weigh less than they seemed to. What ties Maud Noel to Richard's Maud has to be a record that names her both ways.

Also found: in 1913 Samuel H. Noel was an optician at Auburn, King County, in Polk's state gazetteer (R. L. Polk's Washington State Gazetteer, 1913-14, p. 621: Auburn, Samuel H. Noel, optician); the lawyer and physician beside him are only his neighbours in the town's alphabetical list.

9 Oct 2026: The Morilons, 1911-1946

John Randolph Morilon was followed through the records. His first child by Maud, "John Noel Morilon," was born at 4023 11th Avenue NE, Seattle, on 19 July 1911: father a carpenter of 29, born in Kansas; mother "Maud Doel" [Noel], 22, born in Illinois; her first child (Washington certificate of birth: John Noel Morilon, Seattle, 19 July 1911). A tree of the Morilon family on Ancestry calls him Donald John Noel "Mick" Morilon (1911-1997), and his brother Douglas Noel "Jack" Morilon (1916-2003), both dying in Washington County, Oregon, where Maud died in 1986 (Ancestry member tree with John Randolph Morilon (1882-1954) and his family (Kathy Jonas's tree "Clifford-Dole")). So Maud Noel's two sons, and her only children by 1916, were a Donald and a Douglas.

On 5 May 1920, at Helena, "John R. Morilon" of East Helena, 38, born at Leavenworth, son of John Morilon and Clara McClelland, married Elizabeth M. Paulson, 21, calling himself a widower (Marriage license no. 8701, Lewis and Clark County, Montana: John R. Morilon and Elizabeth M. Paulson, 5 May 1920). Maud was alive. Either he hid a divorce, or there was none and he gave himself out as widowed in order to remarry; in that case Maud was still his lawful wife when she was with Richard, and could not have married him. In 1946 he married again in Oregon, as "John Randolph Marllon," 59 (five years too young), divorced at Portland that January, his mother "Clara Ostrond" (Oregon return of marriage no. 8275: John Randolph Marllon [Morilon] and Fletta Almena Knudson, Sherwood, 27 July 1946): the Clara Morilon who married Chas. W. Ostrand at Seattle in 1923 was his mother.

What this does to the case. The pair of sons, Donald and Douglas, is now Maud Noel's on record, and Douglas's age fits the Bismarck notice exactly. But her Donald was 12 in Sept 1923, not 5. Either the notice is wrong about Donald, or Maud Noel is not Richard's Maud. If she is, the boys kept the name Morilon all their lives, which would be why every search for them as Holbrooks has failed.

Two questions remain: whether Douglas could have been Richard's son, and the cause of the parting. He was conceived about late Nov or early Dec 1915, when Richard was back in Seattle after the Tyconda fire; where the Morilons were then is the test (the Seattle directories of 1915 and 1916). His birth certificate names Morilon, and Morilon was living with Maud at Helena when he was born.

One more coincidence to check. The 1911 birth address, 4023 11th Avenue NE, is one avenue from 4023 12th Avenue NE, where the 1920 Seattle directory lists "Holbrook ... Maud Mrs," a married woman living on her own, beside Rev. John A. Holbrook (Eva). That Maud is probably Maude L. Holbrook, wife of Jos. R. ("Ray") Holbrook in 1919, but the 1920 census of the house would show whether she had two boys with her.

9 Oct 2026: Who Dan Lowe Holbrook was

The Ancestry tree of the person who posted the image of the GenForum post belongs to a descendant of Jessie's brother Orlando Hines Clifford. It has Jessie and Richard's son Philip (Daniel Philip Holbrook) married to Erma Evans (1909-1993), with four sons: Philip T., John F., Dan Lowe and Richard Clay Holbrook (1938-2016) (Kathy Jonas's Ancestry tree "Clifford-Dole" (a descendant of Orlando Hines Clifford, who posted the image of the GenForum post)). By that tree, Dan Lowe Holbrook, who posted the family story in 1998, was Phil's son and Richard's grandson, so the story of Maud and the boys was kept on Jessie's side of the family. The tree's owner was asked. [Corrected the same day: the owner says Dan Lowe was the son of Alice Duffy, Phil's first wife, not of Erma Evans; see below.]

9 Oct 2026: Kathy Jonas, and Douglas's own story

Kathy Jonas, a descendant of Orlando Clifford who keeps the Ancestry tree "Clifford-Dole," replied (message-kathy-jonas-2026). Dan Lowe Holbrook was the son of Phil and Alice Duffy, and she believes he wrote the GenForum post. Her tree is the one that holds Maud Noel and the Morilon boys and names Richard as Maud's husband; it has photographs of Maud and two men, neither of whom she thinks is Richard. She doesn't think Maud and Richard were married, and she found no divorce of Richard and Jessie in the newspapers or in the divorce records.

In her tree is Douglas's obituary (The Oregonian, 19 June 2003): born at Helena "to Maude E. and John R. Morilon," he "had a nomadic childhood which was spent in Canada, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and North and South Dakota with various relatives farming, raising cattle and horses, working on harvest crews wherever they could find work, and helping run a family sawmill," and moved to Portland in 1934; he was "preceded in death by his big brother, Mick Morilon" (obituary-douglas-morilon-2003). In 1944 he was a bombardier, "son of J. R. Morilon" of Portland ("Portland Flier Wins Gold Bars," The Oregonian (Portland), 25 Nov 1944, p. 15), and when he married in 1945 he gave his mother's birthplace as Illinois and his father as a policeman (marriage-return-morilon-garton-1945). His entry in the Lewis and Clark County register was also found. It spells the name Corilon and has no column for the mother on that page; the state certificate names her (Montana certificate of birth: Douglas Noel [Morilon], Helena, 25 Aug 1916 (and the Lewis and Clark County register)).

This is the first evidence apart from the tree that puts Maud Noel's son in the Dakotas, and in Canada. Canada fits Richard's entry card for Fort McMurray, Alberta, "to make a home"; South Dakota fits Pollock; and a family sawmill fits Hiram M. Wallace, a sawmill manager in Corson County in 1950. The obituary names neither Richard nor Wallace. The Donald "age 5" of the Bismarck notice weighs lightly: a reporter's line from a hospital far from home, where the birth record is the better witness.

9 Oct 2026: The FamilySearch search

A browser assistant searched FamilySearch, read-only, from a brief (Search brief: Capt. Richard B. Holbrook Jr.'s second family (for a browser agent)). Found:

• Richard's obituary, abstracted by the Germans from Russia society (Pollock, 28 Sept 1923): he died of typhoid fever at the Bismarck hospital; services in the Presbyterian church, Rev. Odland; survivors "Maude Holbrook and Donald and Douglas" (Obituary abstract: Richard Holbrook, Pollock, South Dakota, 28 Sept 1923 (American Historical Society of Germans from Russia)). Find a Grave has him in Spring Valley Cemetery, Pollock, with the same family (Find a Grave memorial 102916719, Richard Holbrook, Spring Valley Cemetery, Pollock, South Dakota).
• Hiram M. Wallace's South Dakota census cards: 1935, wife's maiden name "Maude Noel," married 1923; 1945, "Noel," married 1922 [?], Presbyterian (South Dakota state census, 1935, Campbell County, card 121: H. M. Wallace, South Dakota state census, 1945, Campbell County, card 230: Hiram M. Wallace).
• The Wallaces in 1930, Sioux County, N. Dak., with Maud's sons Donald (stepson) and Douglas (census-1930-sioux-county-wallace), and in 1940, LaGrace Township, Campbell County (census-1940-campbell-county-wallace); the boys were by then in Portland.
• Donald John Morilon's draft card, 1940: his mother "Mrs. Maude Elizabeth Wallace, Pollock" (WWII draft registration of Donald John Morilon, Portland, Oregon, 1940).
• Maud's death: Maude Wallace, born 18 Dec 1888, died 6 Mar 1986, Washington County, Oregon; spouse Hiram (Oregon death index: Maude Wallace, Washington County, 6 Mar 1986).
• Jessie in 1920, head of her own household, married, owning her house on Mercer Street, Seattle, with Dick, Phil, her mother Emma Dunlap, a boarder and two nephews; no Richard (1920 U.S. census, Seattle, King County, Washington, household of Jessie Holbrook (Mercer Street)). The research notes had put this household in Grays Harbor County; the sheet itself is headed King County, Seattle, and the notes were wrong.
• The "Maud Mrs" of 4023 12th Av NE was Maude L., 24, widowed daughter-in-law of Rev. John A. Holbrook, born in Nebraska: not Maud Noel (1920 U.S. census, Seattle, household of Rev. John A. Holbrook, 4023 12th Av NE (Unrelated)).
• Hiram's first marriage: to Velma M. Young, at Superior, Montana, 5 Apr 1920; children born at Pollock in Feb 1921 and Feb 1922 (FamilySearch index and NUMIDENT entries).
• In 1920, Samuel H. Noel at Algona with his second wife Denna C., born Iowa; Clara Morilon, 47, widowed, a lodger in Seattle; an Arthur Morilon, 35, born Kansas, at Tacoma.

Not found, after full searches: Richard in the 1920 census (every Holbrook in South and North Dakota; Washington, Montana, Idaho); Maud and the boys in the 1920 census, under any surname; any of them in the 1921 census of Canada; any of them in the 1925 South Dakota census; a marriage of Richard and Maud, or of Hiram and Maud; a NUMIDENT entry for Douglas (Donald's gives no parents). The FamilySearch Family Tree gives Richard only Jessie as a wife. The GenForum post has "no replies."

9 Oct 2026: Ruled: Maud was Maud Noel

The ruling: Maud Holbrook was Maud Elizabeth (Noel) Morilon, later Wallace (Research decisions). The reasoning:

• the remarriage within months of Richard's death suggests Hiram was already known;
• the boys were Morilon's: Donald was conceived two months into her marriage to Morilon, and Douglas went back as a young man to his father in Portland;
• there was no need for Richard and Maud to marry, since both were already married;
• the Canadian years most likely belong with Richard. He was a mariner who may have taken them north by boat, and nothing puts the Wallaces in Canada later.

Kathy Jonas's photographs are read as Maud with Hiram Wallace and with John Morilon, and none of Richard. Pages were made for Maud, her sons, her parents, John R. Morilon and Hiram Wallace. The deductions are gathered in the case above, under "How it probably went."

The 1920 census sheet behind the research notes' "Grays Harbor County" was also added. It is headed King County, Seattle City, Precinct 94, so Jessie's household was in Seattle, and the notes were wrong (1920 U.S. census, Seattle, King County, Washington, household of Jessie Holbrook (Mercer Street)). And the Ancestry image of Donald's 1940 draft card was added, which names his mother as "Mrs. Maude Elizabeth Wallace" of Pollock (WWII draft registration of Donald John Morilon, Portland, Oregon, 1940).

9 Oct 2026: Canada searched; the thread closed

A last search for the Canadian years, by the browser assistant on FamilySearch and the Alberta indexes. Nothing puts Richard, Maud, Donald or Douglas in Canada:

• Into Canada. None of the four, under Holbrook, any spelling of Morilon, Noel or Doel, was in:

  • Canada, Immigration Records, 1919-1924 (the "Form 30A" entry cards): 48 Holbrooks;
  • Canada, Border Entry Lists, 1908-1918: 60 Holbrooks;
  • Canada, Passenger Lists, 1881-1922.

  Every Douglas born 1914-18 (1,062 cards), Donald born 1909-13 (983) and Richard born 1870-75 (1,497) was checked for anyone born in Washington, Montana or Illinois.

• Back into the U.S. Nothing under Morilon, Holbrook, Noel or Wallace in:

  • the U.S. border crossings from Canada (both versions);
  • the Seattle passenger lists, 1890-1957;
  • the St. Albans lists.

  The only near miss, a Maud M. Noel born 1870 in Tennessee who entered at Victoria in 1917, is someone else.

• Land and censuses. Nothing in:

  • the Alberta Homestead Index (30 Holbrooks, no Richard; no Morilon; 93 Noels, none of Maud's family);
  • the 139 entries for Fort McMurray's township;
  • British Columbia's marriages, 1915-26;
  • the 1926 census of the Prairie Provinces;
  • the 1921 census of Canada.

None of this proves they were never in Canada. Richard's own entry card, which certainly exists, is in none of FamilySearch's Canadian indexes, so those indexes are incomplete for these years. His card comes from Library and Archives Canada's Border Entries, filmed in alphabetical order (the reel "Hoe, Emma - Housman, Zilpha"); its poster's caption says he went by Victoria. Two places were not searched: Ancestry's "Border Crossings: From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935," the fuller name index of those cards, and LAC's own site, which turned away the assistant.

The Campbell County Progress of 28 Sept 1923, with the full Pollock obituary, is not online; the South Dakota State Archives hold it on microfilm (roll 7810, 25 Aug 1922 - 8 Oct 1925), and the county's other paper, Mound City's Prairie Picayune, on roll 6006 (6 Jan 1921 - 27 Mar 1924).

Two photographs from Ancestry trees were added: John R. Morilon in 1925, and Maud in later life with a man in a hat and a small child. The man may be Morilon; by the look of it, the photograph dates from the years when she was Hiram Wallace's wife.

What settled the thread: the ruling of 9 Oct 2026 on who Maud was, drawn from the chain of records in "Who Maud was." The Canadian years remain a reasoned inference, not a finding, and the thread is closed for now with the leads below for whoever opens it again.

Where it stands

Settled. The Pollock farmer was Richard. He died of typhoid at Bismarck on 22 Sept 1923 and was buried in Spring Valley Cemetery, Pollock, after a Presbyterian service, in what seems to be an unmarked grave.

Ruled 9 Oct 2026. Maud Holbrook was Maud Elizabeth Noel (1888-1986), daughter of Samuel H. Noel, an English-born optician of Seattle, and the estranged wife of John R. Morilon. Donald (born 1911) and Douglas (born 1916) were her sons by Morilon, so Richard's stepsons. Within about three months of Richard's death she married Hiram M. Wallace, a Presbyterian farmer of the Pollock neighbourhood. She lived near Pollock at least until Hiram's death in 1960, and died in Oregon in 1986, near Douglas. Each of them now has a page.

Best reading of the rest (see "How it probably went"):

• Richard and Maud met in Seattle about 1917-18 and never married.
• They went north to Canada about 1919, behind Richard's card for Fort McMurray. This is not confirmed by any Canadian record found, but those indexes are incomplete.
• By 1923 they were farming near Pollock.
• Jessie kept the house on Mercer Street, and Morilon called himself a widower.

Still open. Where the family was from 1919 to 1922. Why the Dakotas. Where the farm and "Glenavon" were. Whether either of them was ever divorced. Why the Tribune made Donald 5.

Next

The thread is closed. If it is reopened, these are the leads left:

1. Ancestry's "Border Crossings: From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935" for Maud, Donald and Douglas under Morilon, Holbrook or Noel, 1918-1922. Also the neighbouring cards on Richard's own reel at Library and Archives Canada ("Hoe, Emma - Housman, Zilpha"), where a card for "Maud Holbrook" would be filed.
2. The Pollock obituary in full: the Campbell County Progress, 28 Sept 1923 (South Dakota State Archives, microfilm roll 7810; a research request, or the roll by interlibrary loan), and the Prairie Picayune, Mound City (roll 6006). It may say how long he had been at Pollock, where he came from, and where the farm was.
3. The Wallace marriage, late 1923: Campbell County's marriage register (Mound City), or Sioux County, N. Dak.
4. Spring Valley Cemetery, Pollock: its location and records, which may place the farm and "Glenavon."
5. British Columbia's pre-emption and land records (FamilySearch images, not indexed), if the Canadian years were in British Columbia rather than Alberta.
6. Donald's (1997) and Maud's (1986) obituaries, and Kathy Jonas's tree, for anything more on the Dakota and Canada years.
7. A divorce from Jessie (King County Superior Court, 1915-1925; Jessie's 1928 marriage license).