Douglas Noel Morilon
Younger son of John R. Morilon and Maud Noel, born at Helena, Montana, and stepson of Capt. Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr., who died when he was seven. He grew up in Canada and the Dakotas, then in his stepfather Hiram Wallace's family near Pollock, moved to Portland in 1934, flew as a B-17 bombardier in the war, and farmed near Hillsboro, Oregon, until his death in 2003.
Life
- 1916Born25 Aug 1916, Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana
At 1512 Lewis St; his mother's second child.
documentedproven - 1923Lived22 Sep 1923, Pollock, Campbell County, South Dakota
"Douglas, age 7," among the survivors of his stepfather Richard Holbrook.
- 1930Lived18 Apr 1930, Sioux County, North Dakota
"Douglas," entered as a son, 13, in his stepfather Hiram Wallace's household.
documentedproven - 1934LivedPortland, Oregon
He "moved to Portland to escape the Dakota winters"; graduated from Benson Tech in 1938. A lodger there in 1940.
documentedprobable - 2003Died13 Jun 2003, Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon
Of a brain hemorrhage, at Tuality Hospital.
documentedproven
Family
- Father
- Mother
- Maud Elizabeth Noeldocumentedproven
- Siblings
Pedigree
Notes
Born at Helena, Montana, on 25 Aug 1916, the second son of John R. Morilon, a sanitary inspector at the East Helena smelter, and Maud Noel. By 1923 his mother was living as the wife of Capt. Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr. near Pollock, South Dakota, and the Bismarck Tribune’s notice of Richard’s death names “two sons, Douglas, age 7, and Donald.” His own obituary says 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.” That was his stepfather Hiram Wallace’s sawmill. In 1930 he was entered as Hiram’s own son.
In 1934 he moved to Portland, where his father was living, and graduated from Benson Tech in 1938.
He joined the Army Air Force in 1942, and flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a B-17 bombardier;
in Nov 1944, “son of J. R. Morilon” of Portland, he was promoted to second lieutenant
(newspaper-oregonian-1944-11-25-morilon). He married twice, in 1945 for the second time
(marriage-return-morilon-garton-1945). After the occupation of Germany, 1947-49, he farmed
outside Hillsboro, Oregon, and was a county appraiser until 1980. He died on 13 June 2003,
“preceded in death by his big brother, Mick Morilon” (obituary-douglas-morilon-2003).
He was Richard Holbrook’s stepson, not his son: Richard was in Alaska when Douglas was born, and
Douglas’s birth certificate names John Morilon as his father, as Douglas himself did in later life.
He was identified with the Douglas of Pollock on 9 Oct 2026 (research/decisions.md; the
research thread).
Open questions
- Where in Canada his childhood was spent, and when. The Canadian indexes searched on 9 Oct 2026 have no entry for him under Morilon, Holbrook or Noel, but they are incomplete; Ancestry’s U.S.-to-Canada border crossings, 1908-1935, are still to search.