The First Description of Cincinnati and Other Ohio Settlements: The Travel Report of Johann Heckewelder

This work makes this translation of The First Description of Cincinnati and Other Ohio Settlements available for the first time. Johann Heckewelder recorded this description in 1792-93 as he traveled down the Ohio River, and then published this report in 1797 in Germany. H. A. Rattermann discovered the work a century ago, translated the work, but never published it. Almost a century after Rattermann’s work with the manuscript, Tolzmann rediscovered the work in the Rattermann Collection of German-American Manuscripts in the Illinois Historical Survey, University of Illinois-Urbana. This work is the edited version of Rattermann’s translation and introduction. It provides a vivid description of the early settlement of Cincinnati and the mode of life, manners, and characteristics of the early pioneers.