The article mentions and describes Mereczewszczyzna, and recapitulates views on the birthplace of Tadeusz Kościuszko. As evidence, the authors give, among other things, the parish of the Kosciuszko church, where there is a baptismal certificate of Kosciuszko. Also mentioned is the old wooden house of the Kosciuszko family, which was to be restored in 1857. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1861, T:4, pp. 121-122., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Tadeusz Kościuszko's place of birth.

In Kościuszko's biographies, we either do not find any mention of his place of birth, or we read a general statement that he was born in the former Brest province. However, in the biography published in the "Mała Encyklopedia Polska by S. P. (Leszno and Gniezno 1841)", which contains a large number of materials for the biography of this infamous knight-citizen, we find the information that Kościuszko was born in Siechnowice, then in the Brześć Voivodeship, in today's Biała Region, on the left bank of the Bug River.

There are two erroneous statements in this account. Firstly, the village of Siechnowice, in respect of which Kościuszko left a final decree before his death (see "Tyg. Illustrowany", no. 92), is not on the left bank of the Bug River, i.e. not in today's Kingdom of Poland, but on the right bank, and a few miles away from it, in today's Grodno province. Next, Kościuszko's birthplace is not in Siechnowice, but in Mereczowszczyzna, a dozen or so miles from Siechnowice and situated a few versts from Zapole, a postal station on the Brześć-Bobruż road, beyond the town of Bereza.

It is also no more than a couple of woysts away from the town of Kossovo, in Slonim district. Mereczowszczyzna, now the property of Mr. Vandalin Pusłowski, belongs to the parish of the Kossovo church. In the books of this church there is the baptismal certificate of T. Kosciuszko, which kindly provided, under the authority of the church seal, by the present parish priest, Father Bohdanovich, we literally place here:

"In libris metricis Baptisatorum Ecclesiae Romanae Catholicae Kossoviensis parochialis id quod sequitur reperiri, pagina 22, Nr. 478. Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo quadragesimo sexto, die duodecima mensis Februarii. Reverendus Pater Raymundus Korsak S. Theol. Lector, Prior Hoszczeciensis Ordinis Praedicatorum, baptisavit infantem legitimum parentum filium: Andream, Thadeum, Bonaventuram, per Illustr. Magnific. Dominorum Ludovici Thadei et Theclae Ratomska Kościuszko, swordsmen of the Province of Brest. Patrini: Clarus Magnificus Dnus Casimirus Narkuski, starosta of Kusliski, cum Magnif. Protasewiczowna Suchodolska, et Magn. Dnus Adamus Protasewicz, vice-capitaneus distr. Pinscensis, cum Mlica Dna Virgine Anna Suchodolska, pisarzowna ziemska słonimska. No. 42. In quorum fidem has testimoniales literas sigillo Ecclesiae munitas, manu propria subscripto. Datum Kossoviae Anno Domini 1861, mensis Julii 18. S. Antonius Bohdanowicz, curatus kossoviensis.".

When the present heir to the Mereczowszczyzna estate, in possession of extensive property, chose this estate as his residence, the wooden house in which Kościuszko was born was already so dilapidated that it was impossible not only to live in it, but also to preserve it in the state it was in. A beautiful and spacious brick palace was erected to house it, while the wooden house was rebuilt with new material to replace the old one, which had become unusable, in order to preserve it as a national monument.

This reconstruction was carried out in 1857, under the supervision of Michał Ostromęcki, a former student of the Warsaw Gymnasium, and later of the Institute of Farming in Marymont. The main task, which was to ensure that after the restoration the house would not differ in any way from the previous one in terms of its size, number of rooms and their layout, or external physical appearance, was strictly and conscientiously accomplished.