Marche, Pulaski County, Arkansas

Surprisingly, there was a Polish community in Pulaski County, Arkansas. It's founder was Timothy Choiński who came to the US in 1873. Initially settling in Milwaukee, he thought that Poles might want to get back to their farming roots away from the urban scene. Furthermore, he wanted a site where the winters would not be so harsh. He started his settlement, Marche (French for marketplace), in 1877 in section 26 of what was to become Worthen Township. It was Pyeatt Township at the time. Like some other Polish farming settlements, there were complaints about the land not being cleared or being of poor quality for farming.

A lot of the 1880 families were not found in the 1900 census suggesting they moved on. Even the Choiński family was gone. Still, there was growth in the area. Using the Poznan Project marriage database, some couples were traced to the area roughly between Bydgoszcz and Pila. Many of the surnames found in the 1900 census were very familiar with probable origins near Tarnow in southern Poland.

The settlement was basically swallowed up by North Little Rock as it grew. One finds Gubanski, Zajac, Pruss, Wilkiewicz, Szymanski, Jendrejas, Jaworski, Seredynski, and Kitta roads named after Polish settlement families. Marche is served by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.

The map shows where Marche and church are located. Like other maps of this series, you can zoom in or out and change to satellite view or map view.