Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/111

82 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."

LIZA BUCKMAN CAHILL, M.D., was born February 22, 1862, in Woburn, Mass., being the daughter of Leander and Ruth M. (Buckman) Cahill. Her father, Leander, and her paternal grandfather, Bamaval Cahill, were natives of Sackville, Cumberland County, New Brunswick, Canada, and belonged to one of the oldest and most widely known families in that country. Bamaval Cahill, born in 1804, was the son of John R. Cahill and grandson of John Cahill, a native of Ireland, who married Teresa Barnaval, an