Career
The Hecks emigrated from Ireland about 1760, and settled in New York, where other Methodists from Ireland became domiciled about the same time. They had no pastor and grew careless of religious observances. Soon after their arrival, Mistress
Heck entered a room in which, according to some accounts, Embury was present, and found the emigrants gambling at cards.
She seized the cards and threw them into the fire, expostulated with the players in pathetic language, and then went to Embury and charged him that he should preach to them, or God would require their blood at his hands. In consequence meetings were shortly afterward begun.
The first group included the Hecks and their slave, Betty. Eventually the revival included a large number, mostly Irish immigrants and a number of African Americans.
Barbara Heck designed the simple chapel at John Street which represented the group"s first permanent location.
As a structure, it post-dated another built elsewhere by Robert Strawbridge, also an early Methodist. In 1770, the Hecks went to Camden Valley. When the Revolutionary war began, the Hecks moved to Salem, in northern New York, in order to be among loyalists, and founded the first Methodist society in that district.
They settled in Augusta, and with others from New York formed the earliest Methodist society in Canada.
She was honored by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President in March 2008 and was included in a map of historical sites related or dedicated to important women.