A prominent JC landmark

Mount Carmel, located on and around the intersection of 60 Road and E Road in Erving Township, is a prominent landmark in the area. Erving Township is the southwestern most township in Jewell County. The "mount" rises to 1,814 feet, though not the highest point in Jewell County, it gives one an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.

The area was named after Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. The book of Isaiah in the Bible refers to "the splendor of Carmel." According to Prairie Jewels by Shute and Dillon, the early settlers likened the Jewell County hill to the Biblical one.

The area, about eight miles north of Cawker City, was settled in the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s by settlers with names such as, Noon, Arnold, Bell, Countryman, DeHaan, Kuiken, Kuipers, Rowley, Kettenring and others. Some are buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery on the eastern slope of the hill.

For some 45 years, the Mount Carmel United Brethren in Christ Church and Mount Carmel Sunday School were active in the area. Land was purchased on the eastern slope of Mount Carmel for a building on Aug. 24, 1885, but Prairie Jewels indicates the church was not built until 1906 or 1907. The church was a wooden structure and nothing remains today to denote the location.

However, the obituary of Mrs. Rhoda Foster in The Times (Cawker City) of Sept. 12, 1890, notes "The deceased and her first husband were largely instrumental in building the Mount Carmel church and establishing a church society there. For a number of years, Mrs. Foster was the superintendent of the Sunday school at that place." This seems to indicate the church was built closer to the time the land was purchased. Mrs. Foster's first husband was Demmon L. Rowley.

The Mount Carmel Sunday School, of which Mrs. Foster was superintendent, existed by 1883 as evidenced by an item in the Jewell County Monitor of Aug. 29, 1883, which discussed the group's "Sunday School books."

On the southern slope of Mount Carmel was White Swan School, District 124. The school was organized on April 20, 1878, and was located in the NE 1⁄4 of the SE 1⁄4 of Section 14. That location is midway between Road D and Road E on 60 Road. Between the church, Sunday school and White Swan School, there were picnics, Christian Endeavor, Ladies Aid and Missionary Society, baseball games, school programs and revival meetings in the area.

The events were chronicled in the Mount Carmel items in local newspapers in three counties, Jewell, Mitchell and Smith. But in 1929, the church closed and the area was beginning to fade. Though the school hung on until March 1, 1946, it was not the same. Today all that remains is a small cemetery on the eastern slope of Mount Carmel with a few stones and tall cedar trees.

Mount Carmel Cemetery is small today but was even smaller in 1894. However, the Jewell County Monitor of May 30, 1894, announced "The Ionia Post will decorate graves at Athens, Mount Carmel and Ionia on Decoration Day."

The Ionia Post was Post 78 of the Kansas GAR (Grand Army of the Republic). The organization was composed of area veterans of the Civil War. The Ionia Post was active for many years and Demmon L. Rowley was an active member. In 1894, the Post would decorate Rowley's grave at Mount Carmel Cemetery.

Rowley was from Schoharie County, N.Y. He had served with Company E of the 44th New York Volunteers from Sept. 24, 1862, until the end of the Civil War. After the war, he married Rhoda (later Foster but maiden name unknown) and the couple came to Erving Township in 1880.

According to his obituary, he joined the United Brethren Church in 1881, the Mt. Carmel United Brethren Church which he reportedly helped to build. The Rowley homestead was a mile west of Mount Carmel.

At his death in 1888, he was buried on the eastern side of Mount Carmel Cemetery. According the Find A Grave records, he was likely one of the first burials. Today his military stone is barely readable.

The cemetery is also the final resting place of another veteran, Leslie A. Kettenring. Kettenring was a veteran of the First World War at the time of his death on Dec. 1 1919.

The Kettenring family were early settlers of the area. John Henry Kettenring had married Nancy Jane Miller in Mitchell County in 1881. The Kettenring homestead patent was granted in February of 1884 and was located on the western slope of Mount Carmel. Across the road to the west was the homestead of Demmon Rowley.

The Kettenrings had six children. The three oldest were daughters, Anna Belle, Carrie Mae and Tina Myrtle. The three youngest were a son who died in infancy in 1895 and twins, Wesley Robert and Leslie Albert, born in 1897. John Henry died in 1901 and was buried near the entrance to Mount Carmel Cemetery.

Both Wesley and Leslie saw service in WWI. Wesley in the U. S. Navy and Leslie in the U. S. Army. Leslie went to France in October of 1918, just before the war ended on Nov. 11. He returned to the United States in July of 1919, and was discharged on Aug. 4, 1919. He made his home with his sister, Anna Belle Kettenring Walker, near Phillips in Hamilton County, Nebraska.

It was in that home, on Dec. 1, 1919, when Leslie was examining a shell he had brought back from France that exploded in his hand, killing him instantly. The room was destroyed and windows blown out of the home. His sister, Anna Belle, had just stepped into another room and was not injured.

Leslie Kettenring was brought back to Jewell County for burial in Mount Carmel Cemetery near his father and infant brother. Owen and Anna Belle Kettenring Walker were among the family members who accompanied his body back to Mount Carmel. His mother, Nancy Jane Miller Kettenring, was buried in the family plot in 1936.

At the time of this writing, neither of the veterans has a flag holder beside their gravestones. The Desire Tobey Sears Chapter NSDAR is seeking to obtain the flag holders and to properly honor these Jewell County veterans, Demmon L. Rowley and Leslie A. Kettenring on this coming Memorial Day, 2021.