Barbara Heck

BARBARA(Heck) born 1734 in the town of Ballingrane (Republic of Ireland) the daughter of Bastian and Margaret Embury. Bastian Ruckle (Sebastian) as well Margaret Embury, daughter of Bastian Ruckle (Republic of Ireland) was married Paul Heck (1760 in Ireland). The couple had seven children of which four survived childhood.

A biography usually features a subject who played an active role in the organization of significant events, or who had a unique statement or suggestions that were documented. Barbara Heck did not leave any letters or written statements. Even the proof of the date her marriage was secondary. There are no surviving original sources that can reconstruct her motives and her actions throughout most of her lifetime. But she is an iconic figure in the early years of North American Methodism theology. The biographer's task is to define the myth and explain it and, if it is possible, to identify the actual person featured in it.

A report by the Methodist historian Abel Stevens wrote in 1866. The growth of Methodism in the United States has now indisputably made the modest names of Barbara Heck first on the listing of women who have been included in the ecclesiastical history of the New World. It is more important to look at the enormity of Barbara Heck's accomplishments as it relates to the legacy of her great cause than the narrative of her life. Barbara Heck had a fortuitous part in establishing Methodism in the United States of America and Canada. Her reputation stems from the fundamental tendency that any highly successful organization or group must emphasize the cause of its movements in order to strengthen the sense of tradition.