Barbara Heck

RUCKLE BARBARA (Heck) b. 1734, in Ballingrane (Republic of Ireland), daughter of Bastian (Sebastian) Ruckle and Margaret Embury m. 1760 Paul Heck in Ireland and they had seven kids of who four were born and survived to. 17 Aug. 1804 at Augusta Township Upper Canada.

The person who is the subject of the biographical piece is typically a person who has played crucial roles in historical events, or has created unique concepts and ideas which have been recorded in written form. Barbara Heck, on the other hand, never left in writing or written letters. The evidence of such things as her date of marriage is simply secondary. There are no surviving primary sources, from which one could reconstruct her motives or her actions over the span of her lifetime. The woman is regarded as heroized in the tradition of Methodism. It is the task of a biographer to describe and explain the story in this case, and to try to portray the real person in the myth.

The Methodist historian Abel Stevens wrote in 1866. The advancement of Methodism in the United States has now indisputably put the names of Barbara Heck first on the list of women in the religious history of the New World. It is far more crucial to look at the extent of Barbara Heck's record relative to the label she was given rather than her story of life. Barbara Heck, who was at the time of her birth, a key figure in the establishment of Methodism both in the United States and Canada She is one of the women who's popularity stems from the tendency that a successful institution or movement will glorify their roots to enhance their sense of tradition and continuity.