Johannes Gillhoff

Gillhoff retired from teaching in 1924, but would go on to publish the work called Mecklenburgischen Monatshefte ("Mecklenburg monthly notes").

The book is about a single individual (Jürnjakob Swehn) who had emigrated to the United States in 1868, and details his experiences there in the form of letters sent back to his old school teacher in Mecklenburg.

Gillhoff's book also discussed the beginnings of a German-speaking school in Jürnjakob Swehn's small community and his homesickness for his "old Mecklenburg".

There are some suggestions that the book was solely or largely based on the experiences of one man named Carl Wiedow who left Glaisin for America in 1868 and died in Iowa in 1913.

[3][4] There is a small museum in Glaisin honoring the work of Gilhoff, and displaying artifacts surrounding the man and the letters that were sent to him.