Representative women of New England/Bertha V. Borden
BERTHA VELLA BORDEN, a recognized and efficient leader in Sunday-school work, for nine years previous to her marriage the Primary Secretary of the Massachusetts Interdenominational Sunday-school Association, is a native of Lynn, being the eldest of the five children born to Joseph Franklin and Emma Frances Vella, both natives of this State.
Her father, Joseph Franklin Vella, of English and French descent, died in 1899. He was known throughout the city of Lynn as a business man of sterling integrity, greatheartedness, faithfulness, and charity, being a thorough Christian gentleman.
Her mother, Mrs. Emma Frances Vella, of English and Scotch descent, a woman of energy, kindliness, and piety, is still living, in Lynn.
In 1877, after completing her course of study in the excellent public schools of Lynn, Bertha Vella entered upon a thorough training for the work of a teacher in the State Normal School at Salem. Here she displayed such unusual aptness for object teaching that, although the youngest member of her class, she was chosen by her instructor to represent that part of the graduation exercises in June, 1879.
Two years of successful teaching followed in historic, classic Concord, and then, to the great regret of the Concord School Board, she accepted an appointment to teach in her home city, where later she became the honored and beloved principal of one of its largest primary schools, and developed remarkable tact in controlling and interesting the children under her care.
It was in the Sunday-school connected with the Lynn Common Methodist Episcopal Church that she had begun her work as a teacher at the age of fifteen, at the age of sixteen being elected superintendent of its Primary Department. She resigned this position when in Concord, but after she returned to Lynn was annually re-elected until her resignation at the close of 1900. She reorganized this department into Kindergarten, Primary, and Junior Departments, and supervised the teaching of the two hundred and forty-five pupils.
Richly endowed with strong intellectual powers, possessed of deep religious experience and remarkable teaching abilities, while thus earnestly devoting herself to her duties in Sunday-school and day school she was, unconsciously, fitting herself for a wider field of usefulness. In 1892 she received a call which appealed to her as a divine vocation, not to be resisted. She accordingly resigned her position as principal of the Lynn Primary School, and under the direction of Mr. William N. Hartshorn, of Boston, recently elected chairman of the International Executive Committee of Sunday-school Work, became the Primary Secretary of the Massachusetts Inter-denominational Sunday-school Association, being the first woman in the United States elected as an acting State Primary Secretary. In this office Miss Vella displayed good abilities as a public speaker, clearness and helpfulness as a writer, and genius as an organizer.
In her public addresses she aroused, captivated, and held her audiences, often stirring them to profound gratitude toward God for his love, and sincere determinations to utilize to the best of their abilities their opportunities to teach his truths to their children. Her influence over children she taught seemed irresistible. The irrepressible were checked, the listless aroused, all became absorbed in her words and spiritual pictures. She made the Bible to the little ones a perfect delight; to their seniors, a new revelation from God; to all, the love of Christ a living reality and the desire to serve him controlling.
She was a potent factor in organizing the evangelical Sunday-schools of Massachusetts into district associations that hold annual conventions and other gatherings, unifying, harmonizing, and intensifying all the vital interests of the Sunday-schools of Massachusetts. She also organized and supervised the work of thirty-five primary teachers' unions, taught weekly the Boston Primary Union, and superintended her own primary Sunday-school in the historic Lynn Common Methodist Episcopal Church.
In addition to her work in Massachusetts, she gave great impetus to the Sunday-school cause by her addresses at annual State conventions in all the New England States, at primary teachers' institutes in the New England and Central States, at the annual Provincial conventions of Montreal, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the International Conventions held at St. Louis in 1893, at Boston in 1896, at Atlanta in 1899, and at the World's Convention held at London, England, in 1898. At St. Louis in 1893 Mrs. Borden was elected Secretary of the International Primary Department, but refused to accept re-election at Boston in 1896, because of greatly increased calls for addresses and correspondence in the State work. She was elected Vice-President of the International Primary Department, and re-elected in 1899. Meanwhile she kept busy a ready pen, being a frequent and highly valued correspondent of the Sunday-school Times, the International Evangel, the Sunday-school Journal, and other periodicals. She is also the author of several popular Sunday-school concert exercises and of two* books, "Song and Study for God's Little Ones" and "Bible Study Songs." These books are a veritable storehouse of good things, from which primary teachers, leaders of mission bands and of other children's gatherings, may obtain helpful Bible exercises and suitable songs.
At the close of 1900 Miss Vella resigned her position as State Primary Secretary of Massachusetts, and soon after she was married to Mr. Charles F. Borden, a merchant of Fall River. Mr. Borden is a member of the State Board of the Young Men's Christian Association and president of the Fall River District for Sunday-school work.
Since her marriage Mrs. Borden has lost none of her interest in the forward movements of the Sunday-school cause. Amid the many duties of her home life she finds time to discharge with great efficiency the superintendency of the Junior Department of the Central Congregational Bible School in Fall River, to serve as a wise and energetic member of the District Executive Committee, and as president of the Fall River Primary and Junior Sunday-school Teachers' Union. The following extract from resolutions adapted unanimously by the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Sunday-school Association show the high appreciation felt for Mrs. Borden and her work. This Executive Committee is com- posed of leading Massachusetts Sunday-school workers, and represents one thousand nine hundred and nineteen Sunday-schools and three hundred and forty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-three Bible students. "She has organized the primary teachers into associations for mutual and helpful intercourse and for the interchange of plans and purposes in department effort, and has, by her lesson studies, her literary work, her song-books—that have effectively touched many young lives—and her spirit of devotion and unselfishness and her exalted Christian character, lifted the Primary Department to a high plane of active and useful living; and she has awakened a new and abiding interest in the general work as represented by the State Association.
"Her influence in the work for the children has not been confined to our own State, but has ext-ended far beyond our borders, reaching all parts of our country. The wealth of her resources, her ripe experience, and her sympathy have been freely and generously distributed where the most good could be accomplished. We extend to her our best wishes for the future, and pray that God's choicest blessings may ever attend her and her work."