Elizabeth R. Paterson (1875-1946) was born at her parents farm “Hopefield”, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, Scotland. She attended the E.C. Training College in Edinburgh, where she studied the Montessori method of kindergarten instruction. She taught in Scotland for a few years, and at the end of the Boer War (1902) was sent, by the British government, to South Africa to live with the Boers and teach their children English. The teachers went in groups of four to settlements in the veldt, living in primitive housing, and teaching under canvas. It was there that Elizabeth met Neil Matheson (1865-1932) of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. He had gone to South Africa to work in the gold mining industry, and enlisted in the British army when the war broke out.

After the war, he worked in the mining company office. They married in 1906 and had two daughters, Isabel and Janie. They moved to Canada in 1913, settling in Pictou, Nova Scotia. Janie moved to Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1934 to work for the Seed Branch, Department of Agriculture.