In the early 1750's, Britain encouraged people from Germany and surrounding countries to emigrate to Nova Scotia to increase the population of this British colonial Province. These immigrants were initially landed in Halifax (... actually across the harbour in Dartmouth) where they stayed until 1753, at which time they were transported to Lunenburg. Six British Military Officers accompanied them to help organize this new settlement of Lunenburg. These British Officers were subsequently granted parcels of land as well as islands near Lunenburg. These land grants were formally registered in Halifax in the early 1760's with the introductory wording “... by and with the Advice and Consent of his Majesty's Council under the Seal of said Province of Nova Scotia ...”. Two of these Officers; namely, John Creighton and Sebastian Zouberbhuler, were granted land on Heckman's Island as shown in two land grants “... dated at Halifax this eighteenth day of August in the first year of His Majesty's Reign in the Year of our Lord 1761”. Officer John Creighton was granted land on the island “... containing by estimation Two hundred Acres more or less” in his own name. In addition, Officer John Creighton and Officer Sebastian Zouberbhuler were jointly granted the rest of the island containing “... by estimation one thousand acres” (for a total of 1,200 acres covering all of the island). (As a side note, Creighton and Zouberbhuler were also given land grants on several other islands nearby.) Original copies of these British land grants are currently stored in a vault at the Department of Natural Resources in Halifax in “Old Book 4” on Pages 116 and 117.

These two British Provincial land grants explain why Heckman's Island was originally known as “Creighton & Zouberbhuler Island”. During the ten years following these initial land grants of 1761, Creighton acquired Zouberbhuler's share of the island and people then referred to it as “Creighton's Island”.

Awe yes, but the chronology of land ownership on this island continued when “... registered at ten of the clock on the forenoon of February 15th, 1775 ...” Officer John Creighton sold half of the island to Casper Heckman, Jr., as per the deed filed at the Registry of Deeds in Bridgewater in Book #1 Page 435. In addition, Officer Creighton sold one quarter of the island to the Hebb family and another two separate quarters of the island to two other families – which completed his sale of the entire island. Thereafter the island was known as “Heckman's Island”. This article digs back into 250+ years of land ownership and sheds light on the mystery about how land ownership actually began on this lovely island and why it is now called “Heckman's Island”.

An article published in the Progress Enterprise in the early 1900's provided an extensive ancestry of the Heckman family living anywhere in the Lunenburg area. Toward the end of this article, there is a paragraph that focuses on residents of Heckman's Island and lists the names of all families living on Heckman's Island at that point in time. The exact wording of this paragraph is as follows:

“The present residents of the Island are R.C.S. Kaulback, K.C., Jeffery Heckman and sons, the Tanners, the Petits, the Winters, the Berringers and Coucillor Adam Knickle.”

Note that two farm houses on the island originally built by members of the Hebb family were empty for a number of years during the early 1900's', and this explains why there are no Hebb family members included on the list of residents on the island at that point in time. As another side note, we are not sure who actually wrote this article nor the exact date when it was published; however, we are quite sure that it was in the early 1900's. A copy of this article was kindly provided by Charlotte Dewling (nee Heckman). It was perfectly typed with an old fashioned type writer on thick legal sized paper ... proper thing before computer printers and email were invented ... :-)) ... and submitted to the Progress Enterprize for publication with final wording in the article as follows:

“With the hope that this sketch, a result of much painstaking effort to make the Heckman genealogy tree accurate, we submit it to the Heckman descendents and other readers of the Progress-Enterprize for their perusal.”