Auld family’s name lives on as road near Lake Skinner

Correspondent

Some place names have continued on in Riverside County, and some have faded away.

One place name that is no longer in use is Auld, named for the Auld family, who came to this area in 1883. Auld was a farming area centered on the land owned by the Auld family, located south of Winchester and northeast of Murrieta, in the area of today’s Lake Skinner.

The Auld family consisted of father George, mother Caroline, their daughter Elizabeth, also known as Eliza, and sons William, George and Charles.

George Auld was born on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Caroline was born in England and immigrated at some point to Prince Edward Island, where she and George married. According to Eliza’s obituary in the Hemet News in July 1915, when Eliza was just 2 weeks old, her mother and father boarded a ship with their baby daughter and sailed around the tip of South America to San Francisco, a trip that took almost six months. The family settled in northern California, where they had the rest of their children, and lived in various places, including Monterey and Santa Clara, for 31 years. During that time, George worked as a carpenter and a farmer and became a United States citizen in 1868. Caroline taught school, as was recorded in the 1880 census.

In the early 1880s, George and Caroline came to what was then called Alamos Valley and homesteaded 320 acres for farming. They planted grain of various types. Eventually, their grown children joined them and their three sons claimed additional farm land for themselves. In 1898, a petition was circulated for a post office for that area, to be located in the Auld home. The application suggested the post office be called “Dewey,” but when it was approved it was named Auld. George, who was then 80 years old, was appointed its first postmaster in February 1899. By the end of 1899, the Hemet News was referring to that area as Auld.

George continued in that position until July 1901, when he passed away. George was buried in San Jacinto Valley Cemetery next to his wife, who had died in 1889. In an article on his passing, a Riverside newspaper said,

“Mr. Auld was honest and kind hearted. He had many friends with whom he was much respected.” His daughter Eliza became the postmaster after her father died and held the position until 1914.

The Auld name is not completely gone from the area. Auld Road is located between Winchester Road and Washington Street/ Borel Road, just west of Lake Skinner.

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