The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-06-05
SCOTCH DREAMER's PALACE.
All That Remains of Munkittrick's Col.
 onization Scheme.

Hayton, Wis Correspondent of the Mill
 waukee Sentinel.
 To few passing an old building not many miles from Hayton would it appear as romantic. Fifty years ago, nevertheless, | it had for its occupants people of high | birth, people of wealth and refinement. Inside it was veritable palace. Rare warks of art, costly furniture. everything | that the finest taste could dictate or wealth procure adorned it.
 | In 1853 q Scottish laird named Munkit- trick, owning vast estates in Perthshire, | conceived the idea of emigrating 10 America and founding a colony of his countrymen in the west.
 He disposed of his property in Scotland and, through a New York land agency, purchased an immense tract of land in what is now Manitowoc county, about ten miles east of this village. He was assured that. though timbered, the land was wonderfully fertile. and could be made to yield a competency for 1000 peo- l pie
 The laird, possessing the confidence and esteem of his former tenants. easily induced numbers of them to make the voyage across the Atlantic with him. Lured by tales of the wonderful fertility
 
 the man who led them. their bitter dis appointment to find the elysium of their dreams a dreary waste of swamp and marsh may well be imagined. In all the 5000 acres purchased by Munkittrick but a few hundred gave even slight promise of productiveness True, the land was remarkably fertile, but to clear the swamps and drain the marshes meant the expenditure of thousands of dol lars and half century of time. Dismay at the ruin staring him in the face but still mindful of the plight of those he had induced to wander so far from their homes. Munkittrick further depleted his waning fortune by sending the company home with the exception of a few families who voluntarily cast their lot with his
 The laird proposed to erect a palace | in the wilderness and furnish it in a style the like of which the country had never seen.
 The household furnishings were brought by boat to Manitowoc and there stored until the dwelling could be completed
 With unabated energy the laird erected a rude cagin of tamarack logs.
 It was not until the end of the third year that the dwelling was completed. owing to the difficulty of transporting material With the driving of the last nail the whole of the laird's fortune had | taken wings. Fifty acres of the best | land had been cleared and sown to wheat | and oats. but 1t produced barely enough to provide the merest necessities of life, and blythe time the house was ready for occupancy they were in sore straits in- deed.
 Shortly after the mansion had been fitted up with its sumptuous furnishings the laird's wife died, succumbing to the change of climate. The sckening emana- tions from the dank ,xpanse of marsh and swamp, the wet and the cold all conduced to produce that disease so fatal in it's effect and so insidious in It's ap- proach. One by one the three children sickened and died of the same malady until only the laird himself remained, broken hearted. shattered in mind and body. Finally he too. succumbed and was laid to rest in a grave beside the four other members of his family.