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

1. 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.

   "Mother of Wounded Boy Felt Sure He Was Safe at School," Seattle Daily Times, 28 November 1922
2. 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)).

   "Death Claims Pollock Man," Bismarck Tribune, 24 September 1923Richard Holbrook of Pollock enters the Bismarck hospital, Bismarck Tribune, 22 September 1923
3. 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).

   The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1919The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1920The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1922
4. 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.md, 2 Oct 2026). The working guess then was that he had died or disappeared in Alaska.

5. 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.

6. 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.md, 7 Oct 2026), and his sister’s typescript was right.

   Richard B. Holbrook Jr.'s death certificate, Bismarck, 22 September 1923Marriage return of Richard B. Holbrook and Jessie Clifford, Seattle, 1900
7. 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.

   Richard Blackmer Holbrook's draft card, Seattle, 12 September 1918Richard Holbrook's entry into Canada at Seattle, March 1918 [?]Dan Lowe Holbrook's GenForum post about Richard B. Holbrook, 1998
8. 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.

9. 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.

   "Holbrook's mother ... remained at his bedside," Seattle Star, 29 November 1922
10. 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.
11. 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.

12. 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.

    Marriage return of John R. Morilon and Maude E. Noel, Seattle, 1910Marriage certificate of John R. Morilon and Maude E. Noel, Seattle, 1910Birth certificate of Douglas Noel [Morilon], Helena, Montana, 1916John Randolph Morilon's draft card, Seattle, 12 September 1918
13. 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 (1950 U.S. census, Corson County, South Dakota, household of Hiram M. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

    The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1906The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1910The Holbrooks in the Seattle city directory, 1917John R. Morilan [Morilon] in the Seattle city directory, 1911Samuel H. Noel in the Seattle city directory, 1911
17. 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.

18. 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.

    Birth certificate of John Noel Morilon, Seattle, 1911Marriage license of John R. Morilon and Elizabeth M. Paulson, Helena, 1920
19. 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.]

20. 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 from Kathy Jonas (Ancestry: kathj1012), 9 Oct 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 of Douglas Noel (Jack) Morilon, The Oregonian (Portland), 19 June 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 (Oregon return of marriage: Douglas N. Morilon and Cora Imogene Garton, Portland, 29 Sept 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.

21. 9 Oct 2026
    The FamilySearch search

    A browser assistant searched FamilySearch, read-only, from a brief (research/holbrook/familysearch-brief-richard-jr-maud.md). 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 (1930 U.S. census, Sioux County, North Dakota, household of M. H. [Hiram M.] Wallace), and in 1940, LaGrace Township, Campbell County (1940 U.S. census, LaGrace Township, Campbell County, South Dakota, household of H. M. 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.”

    Donald John Morilon's draft card, Portland, 16 October 1940
22. 9 Oct 2026
    Ruled: Maud was Maud Noel

    The ruling: Maud Holbrook was Maud Elizabeth (Noel) Morilon, later Wallace (research/decisions.md). 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).

23. 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.

• Richard Blackmer Holbrook1872–1923
• Maud Elizabeth Noel1888–1986
• Donald John Morilon1911–1997
• Douglas Noel Morilon1916–2003
• Jessie Lorene Clifford1876–1948
• John Randolph Morilon1882–1954
• Hiram Marion Wallace1895–1960
• Samuel Hall Noel1861–1924

Research files: research/collins-reed/Molata-Addendum-Laws-Riddle-Bruner.md · research/holbrook/familysearch-brief-richard-jr-maud.md · research/to-decide.md