Willie C. Hibberd
Mother of
Helen Hibberd Rencher
Her mother name[d] her
Julia Wilanna Cecelia Clay
Julia Wilanna “Willie” Cecelia Clay (1855-1881) was the daughter of Zebulon Clay (1803-1874) and Elizabeth Gardner (1810-1872) who were both natives of Maryland. The family resided near New Market in Frederick County, MD before Zebulon sold the farm and moved to the New Windsor/Union Bridge area in Carroll County, MD. In March of 1880 she married Allen Hibberd (1844-1888) who owned a grocery store in New Windsor. Willie died in September 1881 after her only child, Helen Hibbberd (1881-1976), was born in June of that year. Helen married Arthur Maurice Rencher (1877-1958) and raised a family of ten children in Wicomico County, MD. Willie and Helen have Find a Grave memorials that are informative: 125411328 and 48439259.
Was Born April 17th 1870
Minnie Louise Willing (1870-1928) was the mother-in-law of Helen’s daughter, Dorothy Anne Rencher (1914-1994). Minnie was born in Nanticoke, MD to Captain James Richardson Willing (1846-1896) and Anastasia “Annie” Shores (1855-1881). She married an oysterman named William Smith Travers (1860-1935) in 1898 and they had one son, William Willing Travers (1902-1979), Dorothy’s husband, a lawyer and judge in Salisbury, MD.
Minnie’s father, James, was known for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his business partners in oyster packing enterprizes in Baltimore and Wicomico County. He disappeared in July 1886 and was said to have gone to Canada. James reappears in a September, 1888 article in the Melbourne, Australia newspaper The Argus. In September 1895, James wife, S. E. Willing, found him dead after he committed suicide by inhaling “coal gas” in their kitchen.
