Neighbors prepare for group's celebration of Passover
Abilene Reporter-News
By LORETTA FULTON
"No Trespassing" signs are tacked to trees, security cameras are
mounted on poles, and dogs are tied in their yards.
A week-long festival is about to begin at the House of Yahweh in Callahan
County, and neighbors are ready.
"We're prisoners on our own land," said Sherry Robinson, who along
with a number of other neighbors is shoring up for the eight-day Feast of Unleavened
Bread or Passover celebration at the religious compound.
The festival begins at sundown Monday and runs through sundown April 29.
It's one of the three major feast days of the year for House of Yahweh followers,
and it attracts up to 1,000 people from across the United States and Canada
to a 40-acre plot that some derisively refer to a "The House of Hawkins."
Founder Yisrayl Hawkins, formerly Buffalo Bill Hawkins when he was an Abilene
policeman, burst into the limelight a little over a year ago when suddenly more
than 100 of his adherents changed their last names to match his. That number
has now risen to 250.
Phone calls from worried family members nationwide have come to the Reporter-News
since it published a series of articles last year about the sect. The group
has since been written about in numerous publications and featured in television
programs.
And, new groups have sprung up in other states as Hawkins has spread the
message of his "kingdom" via radio, the Internet and word of mouth.
Two weeks ago the Jackson, Mich., newspaper devoted most of its Sunday front
page to stories about a 40-member group that meets there in the home of a surgeon.
At least one of its members is planning to come to Callahan County this week
for the festival.
Last month, when 39 members of a California cult called Heaven's Gate committed
suicide, interest in the local sect intensified.
Following that mass suicide, "Newsweek"magazine published an article
on eight groups in the United States that it describes as "living on the
religious fringe." The House of Yahweh was one of them.
Leaders of the sect refuse to return telephone calls to reporters. But others
are open about their concerns and frustrations at having to live next to the
blight that has developed around the compound.
The House of Yahweh itself, a 600-seat worship center and other buildings,
sets back from Oak Forest Road, which intersects with County Road 254 between
Clyde and Eula.
The intersection "looks like a tornado hit it," said Stan Leamon,
who lives nearby.
The property is littered with ramshackle trailer houses, tents, piles of
wooden pallets and trash.
People like Leamon and Robinson have to drive by it every day to get to their
property - land they purchased thinking they had found peace and quiet in the
Callahan County countryside.
But with the House of Yahweh rapidly expanding, they have to wonder.
"I probably won't stay here," Robinson said. She had planned to
build a house on her property someday where a mobile home now sits, but now
she's changing her mind.
"Our friends won't come out here," she said. "There's not
any sense in investing all that money."
Robinson said the sect members wander over private property and even took
her dog, Sammy.
"I went down there and said I wanted him back," she said. The next
day she found Sammy tied in her yard, unharmed.
The publicity about the group has brought some benefits to the neighbors.
Last year Leamon and others were complaining that the caliche road leading to
their homes and to the compound was constantly filled with huge potholes because
of bearing more traffic than it was designed for.
Since it's a private road, the county wouldn't fix it. But now because of
bad publicity, House of Yahweh members have repaired it, Leamon said.
Life is relatively quiet around the compound, Leamon said, except for festival
weeks, but he and other neighbors worry about the group's expansion.
Don Burns, who issues septic system permits for Callahan County, said the
group had a professional engineer design a community disposal system to accommodate
up to 10 dwellings on the compound site. Burns said he doesn't know how many
septic tanks were already there but that he has issued 30 permits since taking
over the job in April 1991.
Another 15-20 septic tanks, designed for one dwelling each, are at the intersection
of County Road 254 and Oak Forest, he said, along with "a bunch of water
wells" that serve four dwellings each.
Another "development" site is proposed on the west side of Oak
Forest Road, he said, that would accommodate 10-12 trailers.
As big an eyesore as the group has created around its compound, Burns said
the people are pleasant to deal with.
"To me, they're just as nice and cooperative as can be," Burns
said.
Burns is sympathetic with those who decry the blight that has built up, but
he is powerless to do anything about it.
"There's not that much regulation in Callahan County," he said.
The state health department could be called in if a health hazard developed,
but Burns said he is doubtful that will happen.
The residents are diligent in obtaining permits for larger septic systems
than required.
"They're doing their best not to pollute their water," he said.
The large number of wells being drilled shouldn't create a problem, either,
he said, "as long as it's done properly."
The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission is another option if an
environmental threat occurred, but Burns said it would "take an act of
Congress" to get TNRCC investigators to the site.
Callahan County Sheriff Eddie Curtis said he is not too concerned about the
upcoming festival. The main complaint he gets is about speeding on the narrow
and rough country roads.
"We really haven't had any bad trouble out of them," he said.
Even so, neighbors such as Sherry Robinson will be on guard this week.
"You just don't even know what kind of people are out there," she
said.
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