Meet the Lisko’s, one of the founding families of Slovacton, Arkansas!

The Lisko’s are one of the many amazing Slovak families’ whose history we are working to preserve and share in the upcoming documentary “Slovak, Arkansas”

The Lisko’s, like many Slovak immigrants, took a chance by leaving the homeland for America. Yet, Mr. Lisko realized this was not the life he wanted for his family. So he took yet another chance and put money down on farm acres in Slovacton and moved his family to the prairie land of Arkansas.

Mr. Lisko did what he had to do and returned alone to the coal mines of Pennsylvania to make enough money to pay for the land and his family’s wellbeing. Eventually, he moved down to the farm and thrived. Grandson, Joe Lisko, recalls the prosperity that came to the family…

“…my dad told a story about my grandpa. When, I guess, he would go once a week [to a neighboring town Fairmount] my grandpa would load up the cream and eggs. Then he would tell Uncle Andy and Uncle John ‘only one of you can go’. So my dad said that they would act like they are fighting to see which one would go and the one left behind would wait until the [wagon] went around the curve and would take off running… and pick up a hidden bucket of eggs. And they would sell eggs without my grandpa knowing and buy candy!”

The farm continued to grow, thrive and has been passed down generations. The Lisko farm is still in the family almost 130 years later. Most of the farms’ main crop is rice and they have found great prosperity as the Slovak area is the home to the #1 rice producer in America, Riceland Foods!

Joe and Virgina Lisko remain integral members of the Slovaktown community. Virginia is a very active member of the Parrish and regularly bakes nut roll with the rest of the ladies for church events. (Which of course I walked away with after my visit)

Joe and Virginia welcomed me into their community back in November of 2022 after a brief phone call express my interest in the town. The Lisko’s and other members of the community frequently get outside visitors wanting to know more about the historic community.

Slavic immigrants and descendants have popped by, vacationers, authors (Milan Čupka), and organizations Global Slovakia and UpRooted Media to learn more about this community.

After completing an audio recording with Joe for what should have been a podcast, we realized there was way more to tell than could fit into a 15 minute podcast. Thus began the journey o documenting this towns history, present and future!

Thank you Joe and Virginia, you are one of the inspirations and guiding forces to making Slovaktown History well known American and Slovak History!