When Mathilda Josephine Ottem was born on 23 May 1885, in Saint Thomas, Pembina, North Dakota, United States, her father, Halvor Pedersen Ottem, was 32 and her mother, Anna Marie J. Ottun, was 22. She married William Wallace Cameron on 29 December 1913, in Saint Vincent, Kittson, Minnesota, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons. She lived in Saint Vincent, Kittson, Minnesota, United States in 1920 and St. Vincent, Kittson, Minnesota, United States for about 10 years. She died on 8 January 1979, in Hallock, Kittson, Minnesota, United States, at the age of 93, and was buried in Saint Vincent, Kittson, Minnesota, United States.