A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Feller, Henrietta
FELLER, HENRIETTA,
A native of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her family was one of the most respectable in the place, and her education and accomplishments such as to entitle her to hold a prominent position in a society where literature and the refinements of social intercourse are greatly valued. She married M. Feller, one of the magistrates of that city, a man highly esteemed, whose independent circumstances surrounded her with all the elegances of life.
Madame Feller had been educated in the Protestant faith, and considered herself a Christian, though she had never made personal piety a subject of much thought. Nevertheless, like most mothers. she was faithful to teach her only child, a lovely little girl, whatever of truth and goodness she knew herself, and it was through the death of this cherished child that Madame Feller was brought to view religion as a solemn and all-important duty. Her husband followed their child to the grave in a few years. His death was that of a Christian; and in submission to the will of her Heavenly Father, Madame Feller now devoted her life to the good of others. Every creature of God's had claims upon her sympathy. Her strong and ardent mind would not be satisfied with that passive goodness, in which most of her sex who call themselves Christians, arc content to pass their lives. She wanted to work in the cause of her Saviour. She felt that labourers were needed in His service, and she determined to devote herself as a missionary in His cause. In 1835 she joined at Montreal two of her friends, M. and Madame Oliveir, who had gone out to Canada to open a Missionary School. Here she commenced her labours among a people who are described as "a degraded race, wanting the common necessaries of life, without instruction, ignorant of the Bible and of the love of God to man, living in the most stupid indifference and insensibility, and dying with scarcely a hope or thought of eternal life."
Among these people Madame Feller took up her residence, earnest in the desire to do them good, and undeterred by the doubts and dislike of those who in their blind ignorance distrusted the hand which succoured them.
Partly on account of ill health, but chiefly from the opposition he met with, M. Oliveir and his wife were compelled to leave Montreal soon after Madame Feller joined them. But she remained strong in the hope of doing good.
On leaving Switzerland, Madame Feller provided, as she supposed, sufficient funds to support herself for life in America. She had intended all her missionary labours should be at her own expense. She brought her money with her, and placed it in the hands of a gentleman of Montreal, who was considered honest and safe. But he failed in business, and so completely was he ruined that she could not recover one dollar of her deposit. To add to her distress, she was prevented getting up a school in Montreal by the prejudices of those who had persecuted M. Oliveir; and after struggling in vain against the tide, she was compelled to take refuge at St. Johns. Here too she met with opposers, and as she had no funds she could do nothing. She had written to her friends in Switzerland of her destitute condition, but before help arrived, she was reduced to great distress. Her utterly forlorn condition at St. Johns weighed heavily upon her heart. But this cloud did not long oppress her. She remembered she was doing God's work, and that she must not faint under trials that had been foreshadowed to her. Means of support from her friends in Switzerland soon reached her, and she again began to teach all the pupils she could obtain, adults as well as children, to read the Bible. That was her mission. The necessity of her labours may be somewhat understood from the fact that there then was not more than one in twenty of the French colonists in Canada, who could read, and scarcely a copy of the Bible to be found among the Catholic population.
Madame Feller had obtained considerable influence at St. Johns. So conciliating were her manners, so pure and peaceful her life, so devoted was her heart to the cause of doing good to the wretched, and instructing the ignorant, that many who regarded her as a heretic, could not but admire her zeal, and bless her charity. But when the first rebellion in Lower Canada broke out, the blind fury of those who felt they were oppressed, but were not qualified to discriminate between their friends and foes, was, at St. Johns, turned against Madame Feller and her adherents. She was driven by violent outrages from the country, and with about sixty of her pupils and supporters, took refuge in America. She was received at Champlain, whither she fled, with the greatest kindness; though her sufferings during her flight had been severe, and during the winter she passed in the United States, she and her poor followers had to endure many privations. But as soon as order was in some measure restored in the Provinces, the British authorities invited Madame Feller to return, promising her protection for the future, and urging her to appear against those who had injured her, and they should be punished. She accepted with gratitude the offer of returning to her mission labours, but she stedfastly refused to witness against those who had injured her.
"I came to Canada," said she, "to do good to all, so far as I have the ability—to those who injure and persecute, as well as to those who love and aid me. What these poor people did, they did in Ignorance. I pity and forgive them, and only desire the opportunity of doing them favours."
Her resolution soon became known, and the true Christian spirit of her conduct subdued her enemies. From that time she was comparatively unmolested. Her school increased, her influence augmented, and her character was respected even by those who still opposed her mission. In the autumn of 1836, she removed to Grand Ligne, a settlement about twenty miles from Montreal, where she opened a school. In July, 1837, Madame Feller was visited by the Rev. Mr. Gilman, pastor of a Baptist Church in Montreal. He found her with her school in a barn, open to the wind and rain. She herself was living in a small garret. Impressed with her devotion, he determined to use every exertion to obtain a house for the Mission. In Montreal, and in the various towns in the United States, he met with a warm and cheering response to his call for aid; sufficient funds were soon obtained to warrant the commencement of the building, and the Mission house was subsequently finished on a much larger scale than was at first projected; the visits of Madame Feller to the Atlantic cities for several successive years, having signally prospered. This institution and its branches now have over three hundred pupils. There is a Normal department, where about thirty young men, French Canadians, are preparing themselves to become teachers, colporteurs, or missionaries; and there is also a female department of the same kind lately established. The great aim of those engaged in this benevolent enterprise, is to teach all the children in the Canadas to read, and then place a Bible in the possession of every family.
Madame Feller's character has been purified in the fiery baptism of adversity. She lives for others, and in the devotion of heart and soul to the cause of benevolence, her powers of mind have acquired such strength, comprehensiveness, and discernment, as few of either sex can ever attain. By her wisdom and perseverance, she has overcome what seemed before impossibilities, and has planted the most extensive and important educational and missionary establishment that the Protestants have ever had in British America: and she is now the beloved mother, the revered Directress of the whole. Her many years of labour have only served to add new energies to her nature, new graces to her soul. Nothing discourages, nothing disturbs her. To her God she commits herself and her cares, with the same trust and love a favourite child feels in the arms of its father.