Marche - Revision history

Phil: /* External links */

2012-08-07T03:24:50Z

‎External links

Phil at 02:03, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T02:03:46Z

Phil at 01:10, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T01:10:57Z

Phil: /* Immaculate Heart of Mary Church */

2012-08-07T01:08:27Z

‎Immaculate Heart of Mary Church

Phil: /* Polish Settlement */

2012-08-07T01:06:37Z

‎Polish Settlement

Phil at 01:04, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T01:04:25Z

Phil: /* Immaculate Heart of Mary Church */

2012-08-07T00:45:58Z

‎Immaculate Heart of Mary Church

Phil at 00:43, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T00:43:31Z

Phil at 00:41, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T00:41:35Z

Phil at 00:40, 7 August 2012

2012-08-07T00:40:58Z

Show changes

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 *[http://www.ihmparishschool.org/church.htm Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and School homepage]
 *[http://www.dolr.org/parishes/parish.php?id=74 Diocese of Little Rock - Immaculate Heart of Mary Church]
 *[http://www.maumellewetlands.org/ Maumelle Wetlands Task Force]
 [[Category:Towns]]

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 In the first half of the twentieth century Marche residents continued to farm, picking cotton and corn, cutting hay and wood, milking cows, and slopping hogs. A tornado uprooted trees and destroyed the [[Hammond, Luens & Devore Lumber Company]] sawmill in Marche, then counting 150 among its population, in May 1908. Another cyclone hit the settlement in April 1921, damaging about two dozen Polish farms. No less than four tornados spun through Marche in the first two decades of the century. Electricity did not reach the community until the 1930s, and the hills made radio reception tricky. The post office closed in 1930. Malaria may have been endemic in the area into the 1930s. Marche was recognizably Polish at harvest time, when Polish farmers would hand-assemble shocks of hay in the fields. Locals called them ''kuklia.'' Chickens ran free and with few predators. Children picked blackberries for pies and cobblers, but rarely hunted as only a few squirrels and rabbits remained on the land. There were almost no deer in the Marche area until mid-century. Female children did not typically receive an education beyond elementary school, and worked in the home. Some settlers sought employment in North Little Rock at the [[Vestal Nursery]], the garment factories, and the rail yards. Beyond the church, a general store operated by local postmaster [[Max Malachowski]] served as a meeting place for local residents. Malachowski's Grocery sold feed and flour, and occasionally loaned money to strapped cotton farmers. The community had no physician.
-Polish traditions and customs continued. Girls raised funds for the church by preparing box suppers for boys, who would buy them and eat lunch with the preparer. Guys picked their favorite girls in a ritual called "dyngus," which involved the boy tapping the girl on the shoulder or legs with a cedar switch. Dances and weddings were popular weekend events open to the whole community. ''Druzba,'' or local elders, encouraged the festivities into the wee hours of the morning by matching up couples for dancing and gathering up the silver dollars tossed against dishes, broken by the coins in a ceremony called ''aes Trzepeni'', for the bride and groom. At the end of the evening, the bride was carried away and put in a housedress. She was then brought back to the ceremony and hidden under a sheet with the bride's maids. If the groom could not identify his thus-swaddled bride, he was made to put on an apron and dance with all the married women. Fishing remained popular, and [[Palarm Creek]], and the Marche lakes held catfish, sauger, grennel, drum, and gar. One of the favorite local dishes was czarnina, a soup made from goose or duck blood.
+Polish traditions and customs continued. Girls raised funds for the church by preparing box suppers for boys, who would buy them and eat lunch with the preparer. Guys picked their favorite girls in a ritual called "dyngus" which, interpreted locally, involved the boy tapping the girl on the shoulder or legs with a cedar switch on the Monday after Easter (according the Polish tradition, boys awaken girls in the early morning hours by pouring buckets of water on their heads and striking them about the legs with long thin twigs or switches made from willow, birch or decorated tree branches). Dances and weddings were popular weekend events open to the whole community. ''Druzba,'' or local elders, encouraged the festivities into the wee hours of the morning by matching up couples for dancing and gathering up the silver dollars tossed against dishes, broken by the coins in a ceremony called ''aes Trzepeni'', for the bride and groom. At the end of the evening, the bride was carried away and put in a housedress. She was then brought back to the ceremony and hidden under a sheet with the bride's maids. If the groom could not identify his thus-swaddled bride, he was made to put on an apron and dance with all the married women. Fishing remained popular, and [[Palarm Creek]], and the Marche lakes held catfish, sauger, grennel, drum, and gar. One of the favorite local dishes was czarnina, a soup made from goose or duck blood.
 ====Post-World War II Marche====

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 ====Immaculate Heart of Mary Church====
-The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church was established in the Marche community in the spring of 1878 by the [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]]. According to Polish tradition, the men unhitched the bishop's wagon at the dedication ceremony and pulled it up the hill to the church site by hand. A larger church built between 1896 and 1898 for $3,242 at the site burned to the ground in 1932. The current Gothic Revival-style church building was designed by [[Ginnochio Architects]], constructed for $16,240, and dedicated by Bishop [[John B. Morris]] in May 1933.
+The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church was established in the Marche community in the spring of 1878 by the [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]]. According to Polish tradition, the men unhitched the bishop's wagon at the dedication ceremony and pulled it up the hill to the church site by hand. A larger church built between 1896 and 1898 for $3,242 at the site burned to the ground in 1932. The current Gothic Revival-style church building was designed by the firm of [[Thompson, Sanders, and Ginocchio]], constructed for $16,240, and dedicated by Bishop [[John B. Morris]] in May 1933.
 The grounds expanded in 1924 to include the [[Immaculate Heart of Mary School]], a home for a small community of Benedictine Sisters from St. Scholastica Convent, and a rectory (built in 1933). The Stations of the Cross were added to the church nave in 1944, and a pipe organ was installed in 1947. The current school building was dedicated bu Bishop [[Albert L. Fletcher]] in 1960. The church built a new parish community center adjacent to the church in 1997-1999.

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 ====Immaculate Heart of Mary Church====
-The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church was established in the Marche community in the spring of 1878 by the [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]]. According to Polish tradition, the men unhitched the bishop's wagon at the dedication ceremony and pulled it up the hill to the church site by hand. A larger church built between 1896 and 1898 for $3,242 at the site burned to the ground in 1932. The current Gothic Revival-style church building was constructed for $16,240 dedicated by Bishop [[John B. Morris]] in May 1933.
+The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church was established in the Marche community in the spring of 1878 by the [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]]. According to Polish tradition, the men unhitched the bishop's wagon at the dedication ceremony and pulled it up the hill to the church site by hand. A larger church built between 1896 and 1898 for $3,242 at the site burned to the ground in 1932. The current Gothic Revival-style church building was designed by [[Ginnochio Architects]], constructed for $16,240, and dedicated by Bishop [[John B. Morris]] in May 1933.
 The grounds expanded in 1924 to include the [[Immaculate Heart of Mary School]], a home for a small community of Benedictine Sisters from St. Scholastica Convent, and a rectory (built in 1933). The Stations of the Cross were added to the church nave in 1944, and a pipe organ was installed in 1947. The current school building was dedicated bu Bishop [[Albert L. Fletcher]] in 1960. The church built a new parish community center adjacent to the church in 1997-1999.

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 The immigrant families each settled on 40-80 acres of land, and built their homes from scratch with financial assistance from the railroad. Most of the [[White Oak Bayou]] bottomlands remained undeveloped and were used for fishing and hunting. The [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests and brothers in [[Morrilton]], soon built a wood-frame chapel at Jasna Góra (or "Sky-Blue Hill," after a shrine of the Madonna in Częstochowa, Poland) in 1878 and named it the [[Immaculate Heart of Mary Church]]. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]] Men sat on the left side of the church aisle and women on the right. The population of Marche proper in 1892 was only 37 people, thought there were many others scattered to farms in the woods.
-In the first half of the twentieth century Marche residents continued to farm, picking cotton and corn, cutting hay and wood, milking cows, and slopping hogs. A tornado uprooted trees and destroyed the [[Hammond, Luens & Devore Lumber Company]] sawmill in Marche, then counting 150 among its population, in May 1908. Another cyclone hit the settlement in April 1921, damaging about two dozen Polish farms. No less than four tornados spun through Marche in the first two decades of the century. Electricity did not reach the community until the 1930s, and the hills made radio reception tricky. The post office closed in 1930. The area was recognizably Polish at harvest time, when Polish farmers would hand-assemble shocks of hay in the fields. Locals called them ''kuklia.'' Chickens ran free and with few predators. Children picked blackberries for pies and cobblers, but rarely hunted as only a few squirrels and rabbits remained on the land. There were almost no deer in the Marche area until mid-century. Female children did not typically receive an education beyond elementary school, and worked in the home. Some settlers sought employment in North Little Rock at the [[Vestal Nursery]], the garment factories, and the rail yards. Beyond the church, a general store operated by local postmaster [[Max Malachowski]] served as a meeting place for local residents. Malachowski's Grocery sold feed and flour, and occasionally loaned money to strapped cotton farmers. The community had no physician.
+In the first half of the twentieth century Marche residents continued to farm, picking cotton and corn, cutting hay and wood, milking cows, and slopping hogs. A tornado uprooted trees and destroyed the [[Hammond, Luens & Devore Lumber Company]] sawmill in Marche, then counting 150 among its population, in May 1908. Another cyclone hit the settlement in April 1921, damaging about two dozen Polish farms. No less than four tornados spun through Marche in the first two decades of the century. Electricity did not reach the community until the 1930s, and the hills made radio reception tricky. The post office closed in 1930. Malaria may have been endemic in the area into the 1930s. Marche was recognizably Polish at harvest time, when Polish farmers would hand-assemble shocks of hay in the fields. Locals called them ''kuklia.'' Chickens ran free and with few predators. Children picked blackberries for pies and cobblers, but rarely hunted as only a few squirrels and rabbits remained on the land. There were almost no deer in the Marche area until mid-century. Female children did not typically receive an education beyond elementary school, and worked in the home. Some settlers sought employment in North Little Rock at the [[Vestal Nursery]], the garment factories, and the rail yards. Beyond the church, a general store operated by local postmaster [[Max Malachowski]] served as a meeting place for local residents. Malachowski's Grocery sold feed and flour, and occasionally loaned money to strapped cotton farmers. The community had no physician.
 Polish traditions and customs continued. Girls raised funds for the church by preparing box suppers for boys, who would buy them and eat lunch with the preparer. Guys picked their favorite girls in a ritual called "dyngus," which involved the boy tapping the girl on the shoulder or legs with a cedar switch. Dances and weddings were popular weekend events open to the whole community. ''Druzba,'' or local elders, encouraged the festivities into the wee hours of the morning by matching up couples for dancing and gathering up the silver dollars tossed against dishes, broken by the coins in a ceremony called ''aes Trzepeni'', for the bride and groom. At the end of the evening, the bride was carried away and put in a housedress. She was then brought back to the ceremony and hidden under a sheet with the bride's maids. If the groom could not identify his thus-swaddled bride, he was made to put on an apron and dance with all the married women. Fishing remained popular, and [[Palarm Creek]], and the Marche lakes held catfish, sauger, grennel, drum, and gar. One of the favorite local dishes was czarnina, a soup made from goose or duck blood.

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 ''Arkansas Gazette'' editors welcomed the new arrivals: "We learned through the local agent of the land department ... that Dr. Chowinski [sic], who was here recently, looking for lands on which to settle a colony of Poles, has created a furore in the northwest about Arkansas, and that there will be a very heavy immigration of these industrious and hardy people this part of our state this fall. They are indeed, already arriving in small parties; but about October the heavy immigration will set in. Then will our forest wake to the stroke of the woodsman's ax." New arrivals may have been misled by railroad agents into believing that considerable corn, potatoes, and other vegetables had already been planted in advance. Many Polish immigrants found the Marche site unsuitable to their needs. "When they came over here, there [were] about two hundred and something families here. And when they got off the train and saw what was here -- some of them went back," remembers one longtime resident. And in fact, many disappointed families left on the very same train that brought them to Marche. Immigrants spent their first days living in Colonel Atkinson's boarded up band pavilion. Some forty families remained in the area, despite the hardships involved in clearing land of trees and tilling the hard-packed soil. Some immigrants found work in the Argenta rail yards of the railroad. Some families left the community for Oklahoma after a few years. In 1880 a local clergyman attested that several of the hard-working families around the settlement had nearly starved to death in trying to establish a cotton crop. Choinski's prediction that five hundred families, comprising thousands of settlers, would arrive failed to materialize.
-The railroad deeded over an old sawmill to the colonizers, as well as a two-story shack, which became the first community dance hall and a staging area for new arrivals. Choinski's daughter, Helen Schnable, recalled that many of the immigrants "arrived with only personal baggage, slept on straw and hay spread on [the] floor with a blanket for cover." Schnable explained that "such beds are no hardship for peasants of European descent, used to such living conditions. The immigrants "cooked our meals in iron wash kettles, ate fish, game, and other wild fowls, corn pones and mush made of corn meal. ... In the evening we all sat around camp fires and sang patriotic and church songs. ... We exchanged visions of the future, which kept our souls glowing, gave us a good night's rest and zest for the next day's work. ... There was plenty of work, but no hunger or hardship, for there was plenty to eat if a man was not lazy." Charles Choinski, who had never before handled a plow or shovel, became a Democratic state legislator for Pulaski County, and died in 1890. The population of Marche proper in 1892 was only about 37 people. The postmaster at the time was Miss [[S. Choinski]]. A vinegar manufactory operated under [[E. W. Choinski]] and a general store under the count's daughter, Miss [[Helen Choinski]] (later Schnable).
+The railroad deeded over an old sawmill to the colonizers, as well as a two-story shack, which became the first community dance hall and a staging area for new arrivals. Choinski's daughter, Helen Schnable, recalled that many of the immigrants "arrived with only personal baggage, slept on straw and hay spread on [the] floor with a blanket for cover." Schnable explained that "such beds are no hardship for peasants of European descent, used to such living conditions. The immigrants "cooked our meals in iron wash kettles, ate fish, game, and other wild fowls, corn pones and mush made of corn meal. ... In the evening we all sat around camp fires and sang patriotic and church songs. ... We exchanged visions of the future, which kept our souls glowing, gave us a good night's rest and zest for the next day's work. ... There was plenty of work, but no hunger or hardship, for there was plenty to eat if a man was not lazy." The first postmaster was the count's son [[Charles Stanislaw Choinski]], who became a Democratic state legislator for Pulaski County at age 23 in 1882. Sons [[Edward Vladyslaw Choinski]] and [[Joseph Choinski]], and daughter [[Sophie Choinski]] operated a dry good store and vinegar manufactory. The count's daughter, Miss [[Helen Choinski]] (later Schnable), served as a telegrapher in the store and as postmistress. Another son, [[Paul Boleslaw Choinski]], became an architect. Other daughters were [[Maria Choinski]], who married Frank Richter of Marche, and [[Hattie Choinski]], who married several times and died in Chicago. Three other children died in infancy or childhood.
-The immigrant families each settled on 40-80 acres of land, and built their homes from scratch with financial assistance from the railroad. Most of the [[White Oak Bayou]] bottomlands remained undeveloped and were used for fishing and hunting. The [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests and brothers in [[Morrilton]], soon built a wood-frame chapel at Jasna Góra (or "Sky-Blue Hill," after a shrine of the Madonna in Częstochowa, Poland) in 1878 and named it the [[Immaculate Heart of Mary Church]]. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]]. A larger church built in 1896 at the site burned to the ground in 1932. The current buff brick church building was dedicated by Bishop [[John B. Morris]] in May 1933. Men sat on the left side of the aisle and women on the right.
+The immigrant families each settled on 40-80 acres of land, and built their homes from scratch with financial assistance from the railroad. Most of the [[White Oak Bayou]] bottomlands remained undeveloped and were used for fishing and hunting. The [[Holy Ghost Fathers]], a mission group of Roman Catholic priests and brothers in [[Morrilton]], soon built a wood-frame chapel at Jasna Góra (or "Sky-Blue Hill," after a shrine of the Madonna in Częstochowa, Poland) in 1878 and named it the [[Immaculate Heart of Mary Church]]. The first priest was the Reverend [[Anthony Jaworski]] Men sat on the left side of the church aisle and women on the right. The population of Marche proper in 1892 was only 37 people, thought there were many others scattered to farms in the woods.
 In the first half of the twentieth century Marche residents continued to farm, picking cotton and corn, cutting hay and wood, milking cows, and slopping hogs. A tornado uprooted trees and destroyed the [[Hammond, Luens & Devore Lumber Company]] sawmill in Marche, then counting 150 among its population, in May 1908. Another cyclone hit the settlement in April 1921, damaging about two dozen Polish farms. No less than four tornados spun through Marche in the first two decades of the century. Electricity did not reach the community until the 1930s, and the hills made radio reception tricky. The post office closed in 1930. The area was recognizably Polish at harvest time, when Polish farmers would hand-assemble shocks of hay in the fields. Locals called them ''kuklia.'' Chickens ran free and with few predators. Children picked blackberries for pies and cobblers, but rarely hunted as only a few squirrels and rabbits remained on the land. There were almost no deer in the Marche area until mid-century. Female children did not typically receive an education beyond elementary school, and worked in the home. Some settlers sought employment in North Little Rock at the [[Vestal Nursery]], the garment factories, and the rail yards. Beyond the church, a general store operated by local postmaster [[Max Malachowski]] served as a meeting place for local residents. Malachowski's Grocery sold feed and flour, and occasionally loaned money to strapped cotton farmers. The community had no physician.

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 *Peter Bartodziej (January 1950-September 1956)
 *Thomas Prendergast (September 1956-July 1970)
-*Edward J. McCormick (July 1970 - ?)
+*Edward J. McCormick (July 1970-1985)
-*Albert Schneider
+*Albert Schneider (1985-1994)
-*Bernard G. Malone
+*Bernard G. Malone (1994-?)
-*Robert Dienert
+*T. J. Hart (current)
 ====White Oak Bayou====

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 Marche is sited near some of the earliest historic home-sites in central Arkansas, including those of pioneer settlers at [[Crystal Hill]] in the 1820s. Fifth circuit judge [[Liberty Bartlett]], with the help of Chicago and New York investors, attempted to establish an "industrial" community to be named Bartlett Springs here in 1872, but the effort failed. The [[Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad]] acquired the property and its land commissioner N. S. Howe plotted a settlement called 'Warren Station' near two "good-sized lakes" in 1875. The area attracted few settlers, but did serve as a rural recreation and picnic area for Little Rock residents who paid fifty cents to ride the train to Warren's platform on special days. Captain [[Thomas J. Atkinson]] built a thirty-two by one hundred foot covered dancing pavilion, an ice cream and soda water stand, a picnic basket check room for woodland promenaders not wanting to carry their lunch, and cleared brush for a rustic beach on one of the lakes in preparation for the American centennial celebrations in 1876. The [[Rose City Brass and String Band]] from Little Rock performed at the pavilion. This venture also struggled to pay for itself.
-The community gained a rural post office stop in 1896, and that same year the Warren name was overturned in favor of Marche (French for "market") to reduce confusion with a Bradley County town of same name. The origin of this name is a mystery, though local legend has it that the name came about because the lowlands near the town are "marshy," a "marche" homophone.
+The community gained a rural post office stop in 1896, and that same year the Warren name was overturned in favor of Marche (French for "market") to reduce confusion with a Bradley County town of same name. The origin of this name is a mystery, though local legend has it that the name came about because the lowlands near the town are "marshy" - a "marche" homophone.
 ====Polish Settlement====