Maud was born on November 8, 1891 to Francis Cornelius Peck and Pauline Williams, aka Paulina. Francis Peck ran a general store called, "Pecks General Store & Briatiania Dance Hall" in Jeanette's Creek Ontario.  The dance hall was above the above the general store.  She was one of ten children.  She was born in Jeanette’s Creek, Ontario, which is near Cheatham and approximately 20 miles from Detroit, MI.  Francis and Paulina died in Detroit during the 1920's.

 

She was educated at “The Pines”, a Catholic girls school, run by the Ursuline nuns.  Her aunt, Genevieve Williams, was superior general of the Ursuline order of nuns.  The land for “The Pines” school was donated by a Peck ancestor. 

 

Upon adulthood, she moved to Detroit as did many of her siblings since it was considered a boom town at the time.  She worked as a stenographer at the Packard Motor Car Company, where she met her husband, Benjamin deClaire, who worked in the experimental division.  They married in the year 1910 and had seven (7) children and many grandchildren.  She died in 1982 and is buried in Mt. Elliot Cemetary in the deClaire plot.