The Doctor Rode Side-Saddle: The Remarkable Story of Elizabeth Matheson, Frontier Doctor and Medicine Woman

By Ruth Matheson Buck

Book Overview

The remarkable story of Elizabeth Matheson stands out as a biography of one of Canada's extraordinary women and as a compelling picture of pioneer life on the prairies. One of Canada's first woman doctors, she was a determined and truly remarkable person, whose characters and achievements, from her early days in Ontario and India to her death in 1958 are recounted by her daughter, author Ruth Matheson Buck.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088977160X
• ISBN13: 9780889771604
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: University of Regina Press
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An interesting biography of a remarkable woman

The title of this book was what first piqued my interest as I love to read biographies of interesting people. Once I started to get into the book, I found it to be a fascinating read, and many of the family names mentioned throughout resonated with me since I grew up in Frenchman Butte (just a stone's throw from Onion Lake) in the 1950's and 60's. I'm glad that Ms Buck devoted segments of the book to her father, John "Grace" Matheson as well as to her mother, as his life was equally remarkable. We are fortunate indeed to have a written record of the scores of self-sacrificing pioneers who laid the foundations upon which our country has been built. My only regret is that the author did not include more pictures of the family, and perhaps a map detailing the location of the original mission and cemetery in relation to the present-day village of Onion Lake. In my estimation, the book is well worth the read if one is interested in gaining insights into the lives of our early pioneers and how they lived a century ago.

A Somewhat Biased Review

This book is written by my Aunt who presently has a school in Regina Saskatchewan named after her. I found ia a very interesting read of a side of my extended family that I have never known. The novel's style and the struggles it portrays strikes a very familiar note to me, being that I was raised in the prairies by 1st generation Canadian parents of `very' English ancestry. My aunt was a feminist before her time and our family always thought that Auntie Ruth was very determined and individualistic, a person who did not hold typical views of what a women's role in society should be.