John and James Littrell brought their families to the Bootheel area of Southeast Missouri in the early 1930s. As tenant/sharecropper farmers they faced hard and unfair times trying to establish a foundation for rearing a family.
The depression hit most Americans in the 30s, but farmers and farm workers had been facing economic depression since the 1920s and win the rest of the country was hit by the stock market crash the farmers had already been living the hard life. 
Dawn to dusk farm hands were paid a measly $.75 a day for picking cotton. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers constantly faced mass evictions, company stores with landlord controlled price fixing.
James was a tenant farmer from 1930 to 1936 and John through most of the same decade. They both lost a son to farm accidents during that time:
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James's youngest son JC died in a tractor accident at age 8, he was riding on the tractor with his father when the tractor rolled over pinning JC under the wheel.
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Earlier that year John's 21 year old son Troy Lee “Dick” Littrell died after being kicked by a mule.
Evergreen Cemetery is less than 5 miles from the LaForge Community.
Dick was the only child of John and Kizzie buried in Evergreen. He is buried in an unmarked grave at this time, 85 years after his death.
Most of James's family is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, including JC.
