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ARTHUR J. AULD, part owner of the old family homestead, in Big Grove township, known as the Auld farm, was born there, August 28, 1870. He is a son of George W. and Joanna (Marine) Auld. George W. Auld was born in 1834, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, son of John and Nancy Auld, and reared in his native state. When twenty years of age he came to Washington county, Iowa, with his father's family. Two years later, in 1856, he came to Benton county, settled on the west quarter of the land, which is still the property of his heirs. He enlisted, in 1861, in the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, Company G, and took part in many important battles. He went with Sherman on the march to the sea and marched two thousand miles the closing year of the rebellion, being a member of the famous "Crocker Brigade."
At the close of the war Mr. Auld returned home and again took up farming, exchanging the sword for the plow share. In 1866 he married Joanna B. Marine, and lived on his farm until he removed to Illinois where he took up his residence on his father's place. His father, John Auld, had returned to Illinois and worked in a glass factory; later exchanging his position with his son, he came back to his farm. John Auld died in 1874. In 1876 George W. Auld returned to Iowa. He consolidated his father's farm and part of the Marine farm with his own, making the half section, now known as the "Auld farm." Here he lived until his death on March 24, 1899. His father, John Auld, traded a team of horses for one eighty of his splendid estate. George Auld's wife was a daughter of William F. and Mary Marine, who came from Wayne county, Indiana, to Benton county, about 1856, and took up land; later they moved to a farm north of Vinton, locating in Vinton afterward, and then went to Des Moines, where both died. Mr. Marine, at one time thoroughly discouraged by the problems confronting the pioneer, declared this country fit only for buffalo and Indians. One of his sons, S. A. Marine, was editor of the Vinton Observer, later consolidated with the Vinton Eagle when Mr. Marine became pension agent at Des Moines. George W. Auld and S. A. Marine were in the same company during the war until Mr. Marine lost a leg at Atlanta and was compelled to return home. The children of George W. Auld were: Harry M., in government mail service since leaving the farm and now living at Cedar Rapids; Arthur; and Lida C., wife of H. W. Moody, of Chicago. Harry M. Auld has one son named Robert Henry and Mrs. Moody has a daughter, named Hope Louise.
Arthur J. Auld was reared on a farm, and has lived there all his life with the exception of the time spent at Tilford Academy and one year spent at Cornell; he has also spent some time in travel. Mr. Auld is a successful farmer, energetic and up-to-date, and has made all possible improvements on his farm. In politics he is a Republican, and he has held township offices. He belongs to the Methodist church of Garrison. He is well known in the community, having spent his life in Benton county, and is a prominent citizen.
In 1901 Mr. Auld married Cecile A., daughter of Howard and Leah (Williams) Beresford, who had come from Indiana in an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Auld have three children, namely: George Emory, six years of age; Leland Beresford, four, and Byron Marine, two. The scattered living members of the two pioneer families mentioned in the sketch are Insco Marine of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mary (Marine) Burgin of New York City; and Chas. B. Marine, of Des Moines, Iowa; Mary (Auld) Whitacre of St. Paul; O. P. Auld, of Plankinton, South Dakota; I. N. Auld, of Oacoma, South Dakota; C. C. Auld, of Marshalltown, Iowa; J. J. Auld and his sister N. E. Auld, of St. Paul, Minnesota.
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