Madame Henriette Odin Feller was born April 22, 1800, in Montagny, Switzerland. She had one brother and five sisters. By the time she was 14 years old, she was spending most of her spare time visiting hospitals, comforting the sick and elderly. She was very compassionate and one of the more important things in her life seemed to be to help others. In 1822, she married M. Louis Feller, a 51-year-old widower. He was a well-to-do businessman and a Colonel in the Swiss Reserves. They had a daughter Elize, but she was sickly and died at the age of three. Two months later, Mr. Feller also died. Mrs. Feller became very depressed. Searching for something to make her life worthwhile, she decided to become a missionary. She had been left a considerable amount of money by her husband, and this enabled her to go to Canada to pursue her missionary work.

The voyage took two months, arriving in New York City in October, 1835. Mrs. Feller went on to southern Canada and acquired a large land grant. In 1836, she had a log house built, the beginning of The Feller Institute. She spent several years establishing mission outposts and small churches.

      Links to some web sites with more information on the Feller Institute:        Feller Memories       Ricks's Feller Web site       Henrietta Feller and the Grande Ligne Mission: A Memorial (ebook)