The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Heck, Barbara

HECK, Barbara, one of the founders of American Methodism: b. Ballygarry, County Limerick, Ireland, 1734; d. near Augusta, Ontario, 1804. She was of a colony of German immigrants in Ireland who were among the first to be influenced by Wesley's preaching. In 1760 she came to America with her husband, Paul Heck, and Philip Embury (q.v). In 1766 she was very active in the organizing of a Methodist society which met at Embury's house, and she also did much toward the building of the Old John Street Methodist Church. Later she and her family removed to the northern part of New York State, and when the Revolution broke out went to Lower Canada (1774), and later settled in Augusta, near Prescott in Upper Canada, and were the founders of Methodism in that province.