Born Emma Shaw and a daughter of a Hudson's Bay Factor, she married Frank Beaton of the Hudson's Bay Co. in 1887. She shared her life with him for fifty years. Frank, as a Hudson's Bay Factor, took the Fort St. John post in 1904. Emma was kept busy caring for her twelve children. During the Christmas holidays, she would also be kept busy cooking for some of the First Nations who came to the Fort. They were very fond of her plum pudding!! Although she understood English well, she was reluctant to speak it, preferring her native Cree. Perhaps this was for fear of ridicule, if she should make an error. Her grand-daughter Eunice (Beaton) McCaffrey recalls that her grandmother "was a short, dark woman. She would put us on her knee and sing to us when we visited her." Mrs. Beaton passed away in the early thirties.

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