To the editor:

I read the Feb. 5 report and saw the photos in the Southeast Missourian about Tower Rock. My father grew up there. There is a cemetery north of Tower Rock where the tombstone inscriptions are in German. As you head back toward Jackson and Fruitland, you pass through a few small farm settlements where the people mostly speak German. A Lutheran church is located along the main road where a small log building has been developed into a shrine similar to the Old McKendree Methodist Church in Jackson.

I grew up in the Indian Creek area just south of Neely's Landing and will soon return to live in Jackson. Many of my relatives live in the Jackson-Cape Girardeau area. Heidi Hall's stories and research were very interesting.

PAUL TRIPP

San Mateo, Calif.