Barbara Heck

BARBARA, (Heck), Born 1734 in Ballingrane, Republic of Ireland. She is the daughter of Bastian (Sebastian) Ruckle and Margery Embury. Bastian Ruckle as well as Margaret Embury had a daughter called Barbara (Heck), born 1734. In 1760 she married Paul Heck and together they have seven children. Four of them lived to adulthood.

In most cases subjects have participated at important occasions and expressed unique thoughts or ideas which are documented in writing. Barbara Heck, on the other hand, left no written statements or letters. The proof of details as the date she got married marriage is only secondary. There is no primary source that can be used to reconstruct Barbara Heck's motives and actions during most of her life. But she's become a heroic figure in the early history of Methodism in North America. It's the responsibility of the biographer to describe the legend in this case, as well as to present the actual person enshrined therein.

The Methodist historian Abel Stevens wrote in 1866. Barbara Heck, a humble woman from the New World who is credited with the advancement of Methodism throughout all of the United States, has undoubtedly been a leader in the history of the church in the New World. Her accomplishments will be largely due to the creation of her most precious name made from the history of the great reason for which her name remains forever etched in the story of her personal lives. Barbara Heck, who was without intention a part of the founding of Methodism both in the United States and Canada, is a woman known for her fame due to the tendency for a successful institution or movement to exalt its origins to reinforce the sense of the continuity and history.