Here’s another view of Wayne Mathews’ wooden car number two now taking shape at his home out in the Leek Creek Community. Mathews likes to transform items.
Wooden Car number two is underway out on the Wayne Mathews’ property in the Leek Creek area. Mathews is the artist who enjoys changing things.
Returning to celebrate their history and the unveiling of the historical marker designating their cemetery were these members of the Leek Creek Community.This was April of 2023.The cemetery was established in1896.
Do you see how Wayne Mathews’ workshop looks like a car over there on the right side? Who knows what this building will ultimately look like. It’s all in the mind of Mathews.
The St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church built in the early 1900s in the Leek Creek Community area. The educational building serves many community functions.
The St. Paul Baptist Church cemetery received its Texas historical designation in 2021. This marker was unveiled in 2023.
Cary (K.R.) Roquemore was known and respected affectionately as “Uncle Duck.” His headstone is appropriately inscribed by community artist Wayne Mathews.
WOODEN CAR 2
Wayne Mathews is building his second wooden car out in his family property on the Bivins No. 2 postal route and the Leek Creek Community. The area is quite rural. It’s out between Bivins and Huffines along County Road 4344. A lot of history and family homes are here but no longer cotton fields and farms.
At the community’s center is the tall, white and elegant St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church which, with its cemetery, is one of the prettiest locations around.
The community needs some help to be known. Some claim to fame. Maybe it needs to be called the “Wooden Car Factory Community.” Already one wooden car has rolled off the assembly line here, and another is on the way, thanks to artist Wayne Matthews.
Mathews, 63, is the owner of his long-time family home, and this is where he designed and built the wooden car. The car was made by hand and so far, there has been only one, so he’s no competition for Henry Ford.
But Wooden Car No. 2 is underway. Around the Mathews’ place in Bivins 2, several works are in the process of becoming something else. See the accompanying pictures and use your imagination while learning more about Bivins #2 and Leek Creek.
Bivins No. 2 and Leek Creek
The Matthews family holds a reunion here the first weekend in July. They’ve built a pavilion to hold the crowd.
“It’s more than just us,” Mathews tells of the convocation. “We have plenty of food for all who come.”
The Leek Creek community goes back to 1859. Its cemetery has an official state historical marker which tells of its establishment in 1896.
The community story tells of how freed slaves came here from Georgia by train. They may not all have known how to read or write, but they knew how to thrive.
The names of Boss Rambo, Scott Davidson and Cuff Thomas are important here. They were ministers who saw the need for church, school and cemetery. And so, they secured the purchase of four acres of land to start.
One famous family story is that of Uncle Duck. Cary (K. R.) Roquemore, known affectionally as Uncle Duck, who rose from slavery in Georgia to own acres of land and businesses here in the Leek Creek area. This included a cotton gin, sawmill, lumber yard and blacksmith shop. On his 100 acres he raised an orchard of fruit trees as well.
The community does not recall whether Uncle Duck ever learned to read or write. But he knew how to succeed. He died in the 1930s and is buried next to his first wife Mary with a headstone inscribed by Wayne Mathews.
Uncle Duck paved the path for another of Leek Creek’s heroes, Professor Walter Solon Mitchell Sr. The Greek name “Solon” was right for him. He graduated from Wilson College in Marshall and did post graduate work at Prairie View College.
He began teaching in Bryan, TX, in 1907, but wanted to come back to the Leek Creek community. He arrived to teach in the St. Paul Church school and become principal. His reputation was that he placed a towering importance on his students learning to read, write and do arithmetic.
Prof. Mitchell was drafted to serve in the military in 1918 and returned to hold financial plans with a representative from Fisk University about the establishment of a Rosenwald school here. St. Helena was built and became the first Rosenwald school in Cass County. Prof. Mitchell was teacher and principal 1918-1947.
The school’s name, St. Helena, was chosen after the beautiful island Mitchell visited in West Africa during his military time. St. Helena opened in 1923 with elementary grades one to six. High school was added with grades seven to nine. The facility was labeled a training school, but it was more in the minds of the community.
The history of these times is remembered today at community gatherings. Community members like Wayne Mathews are proud to have grown up in the Leek Community, to have gone to church here and now have a resting place in an historic cemetery.
One family member tells this story. “When we were young going about in the cemetery, we were told not to move the rocks,” Johnny Reeves said. “Each rock represents a burial place. I learned that and never forgot.”