Frieda Margaretha (Schuerman) Loy, daughter of Johann Georg Heinrich and Karoline Dorotte Schuerman, was born April 12, 1898, at Oak Creek Ranch near present-day Sedona, Coconino and Yavapai Counties, Arizona Territory.  Frieda’s parents were German immigrants who had limited English-speaking abilities.

She attended grade school on the ranch where she was born.  The school had been started by her father for all the children from the surrounding areas.  Frieda then went to Prescott, Yavapai County, where she stayed with Mrs. William Lloyd to attend High School.  After the first year, she had to return home because World War I had taken all the men to war, and there was no one left to help her father and mother on the ranch.

After the war, Frieda married Myron Samuel Loy (1893-1972), a rancher and farmer from Oak Creek, Yavapai County, on December 2, 1924, in Prescott.  Myron and Frieda had two children: Sherman Adelbert Loy (b. August 5, 1926), and Martha Joan Loy (b. June 19, 1932 in Cornville, Yavapai County).

The Loys lived on the homesteaded property Frieda had inherited from her father in the same house her father had built.  During those years as wife and mother, Frieda was active with the happenings in the neighborhood.  On occasion a “box supper” and dance would be held at the Red Rock School House.  She would play the piano for those happy get-togethers.

Frieda was an over-fifty-year member of the Eastern Star, which had started in Jerome, Yavapai County.  Her brother Frederick Henry Schuerman (1893-1967) was a member of the Cottonwood Masonic Lodge.  In later years, she became an active member in the Homemakers Club, serving as president of that group several times.  She was an excellent seamstress and did sewing and alterations for other people.

As long as her daughter Martha could remember, Frieda was interested in art.  At about age fifty, she took art lessons which she enjoyed very much.  Many relatives and friends were proud owners of her paintings.  An article and picture of Frieda, standing with a painting in hand by the old house in the red rocks where she had lived her entire life, was published in Grit Magazine.

Frieda died on December 31, 1983, on the family ranch and was buried beside her husband in the Cottonwood Cemetery, Yavapai County.

Donor:  Martha J. Loy, May 2000
Photo Located:  RGC MS-39, Box L, F-Loy, Frieda (Schuerman)
Updated:  11/09/2018, Tom Collins