Put together by Lyle Kent Jones (grandson) with a lot of help from Nelda Lofgreen (daughter).
Fred was born March 29, 1886 In the town of Bowie Arizona. It was 14 miles north of Fort Bowie and was originally called Bean. He was the 5th child. His Father Benjamin Levi Lofgreen worked for the railroad. His Mother Anna Palsdotter Lofgreen was afraid of the Indians who would peer through the windows of their home at night when Ben was gone on the rail. Sometime before July 1889 when his brother John David was born the family moved to Graham according to the Lofgreen book “Simple Faith“. John David only lived 9 months. From the railroad history the rail ran from Bowie to Miami. They moved to Claypool. Fred’s daughter Mildred lived on the old Lofgreen homestead in Claypool. John David Lofgreen was buried in the Graham county cemetery.
The railroad spur from Bowie to Miami was owned by the Arizona Eastern Railroad. They had 135 miles of track. There was a mine in Bowie owned by a Mr. Bean and the Smelter was in Miami.
This is a map of the early rails in Arizona and New Mexico.
In 1891 (Fred would have been 6 years old) his family moved to St. David Arizona where his uncle Peter Anderson Lofgreen lived. Fred was baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints when he was 8 but was never very active. Fred’s sister Hattie Lavina Lofgreen was born in St. David in 1895. His family then moved to Mesa. Where his father drove the stage between the Mesa railhead and the Roosevelt Dam site. (62 miles) The dam was just being built.
Top row:Tory Benjamin, Fredrick Martinus, Annie, James Peter, Neils PaulFront row: Benjt Levi, Hattie Lavina, Anna, Andrew Levi
The road was known as the Tonto wagon road or the Mesa Roosevelt road from 1903 to 1915 when it was renamed the Apache Trail. The first Concord stage to travel the road was June 10, 1905.
Roosevelt Dam when first completed.
On July 25, 1906. Ben started his normal trip and when he pulled into the stage stop at Tortilla Flat to change horses. He collapsed and died within 1 hour from what was recorded as Sunstroke at the age of 54.
He was buried in Mesa on the 26 of July 1906.
Fred would have been 20 years old.
Fred met Charlotte Ann Elmer at a dance and on 26 April 1915 they were married. Fred would have been 29. Fred was working for Frank Webster. They lived with Charlotte’s parents while Fred built a two room house just north of the rail road tracks in Central, Arizona. Their first child Mildred Ann was born Nov. 12, 1916 in Central. In October 1917 Fred and Ann moved to Fort Grant Arizona where Fred worked as a security guard at the Arizona State Industrial school for boys and was a farm instructor. While living in Fort Grant they had three more children Minion born Jan. 1,1918, Thelia Mae (who always said she was born outside the fence.) born Oct. 4, 1919 and Lena born Oct. 30, 1921.
Fred was known to finish a meal by taking a spoon full of butter and eating it before he left the table. Nelda says it was a Lofgreen tradition to have desert to finish every meal. Fred liked his sweetened tea and would eat the butter to keep his tea from tasting bitter.
In the fall of 1922 a new superintendent was put at the fort and he let most of the guards go. Fred stayed until January 19, 1923 but spent most of his time trying to catch run a ways.
They moved to Pomerene just north of Benson where two of his brothers (Tory and Neils) and one sister (Hattie)were living. They rented a small place and Fred planted Barley but the water failed and they watched as the barley burnt up. They did have a garden and were milking 3 cows so Fred hauled posts and Charlotte made cheese and butter and they sold some garden stuff so they could get along. In March Fred and all the girls got the flu. Fred also had pneumonia. Sheldon Fredrick was born
June 22, 1923. Fred was so happy to have a son after 4 daughters, that as soon as Sheldon could walk he bought each of the kids a ball glove and a bat and a ball and they played as often as they could.
In August Frank Webster wanted Fred to move back to Central and work for him so Fred added two rooms on the house they had lived in when they were first married. That is where they lived until November 1924 when they moved to Claypool. Fred worked at the smelter and they bought a five room house on a hill at the end of Oak street.
That is where Benjamin Edward was born May 8, 1926 named after both grandfathers. They built two more rooms and a service porch onto their house. Cotton (Lewell Jarret)born Feb. 25, 1929 (He didn’t like his name so he always went by Cotton).
They bought their first electric washing machine.
Glenda was born March 13, 1931. In 33 the mines and smelter shut down and they moved to Chandler where Fred went back to farming for a living. They had one big room and two tents one for the boys and one for the girls bedrooms. Elmer Keith was born Oct. 16, 1933. They moved twice to two different houses there.
Once Fred was supposed to take an old dog that had gotten sick out in the desert and shoot it. He came back with the dog and tears in his eyes. He just couldn’t do it. Nobody knows whatever happened to the dog.
In 1934 they moved to the Chandler ranch where Fred raised and cared for hogs. Ruth Marian was born Feb. 8, 1936 and Nelda Colleen was born April 4, 1938. The children attended Gilbert schools and went to Sunday school and primary. They moved into Gilbert in 1939.
Fred tried to be strict with the boys but with the girls he was a pussy cat. Except for Glenda who managed to get a few whippins. She always said later in life that she deserved them.
Lena graduated from Gilbert High school and was visiting Mildred in Miami when she died of a brain tumor at the age of 18 on May 16, 1940 and was buried in the Mesa City Cemetery.
Fred used to tease Ann by saying, “These biscuits are a little burnt But that’s just the way I like them.”
Fred moved his family from Gilbert to Higley where Fred was a night irrigator for awhile.
Nelda remembers him coming home from irrigating with two baby foxes in the pocket of his bib overalls. He built a cage for them and they raised them until they were old enough to let go. He was always bringing home hurt or baby animals and baby birds.
They moved to Mesa but only lived there a month and they moved to Glenbar in Graham county. Fred went to work for M. J. Ferguson. Fred was a hard worker and an avid farmer. In Glenbar Fred raised chickens and pigs and at one point horses and cows. They let him plant vegetables on the ends of the rows near the house. That way they were watered when the field was irrigated. They didn’t have much money but they always had plenty to eat.
I remember his kids all telling that if they complained about the smell of cigarettes on him Fred would ask them. “If your sins stunk how would you smell?”
After working in the fields Fred came home smelling like a skunk. Ann wouldn’t let him in the house. She made him take off his clothes outside and then come in and bathe. For some reason Fred couldn’t smell and had very little taste.
Nelda remembers her dad teaching them how to make a trap to catch chipmunks and he built a cage on legs for them so they could keep them.
On December 31, 1950 Fred had his first heart attack and was unable to do hard work from then on. They moved back to Central February 18, 1951. To an old house owned by Ann’s brother Sheldon who the kids always called uncle Schek.
They still had two cows and chickens. Fred loved raw eggs and would always crack and eat a couple every time he gathered eggs.
Fred delivered the Arizona Republic newspaper and would collect the money. The Greyhound bus would drop the papers off at the Central Store. They were bound tight with wire and it took a pair of wire cutters to get them open. The papers then had to be folded and delivered which was done in an old Desoto car. Fred also delivered the mail until January 1, 1954.
Fred wasn’t real happy in Central because he couldn’t do much. He helped as much as he could but after a couple more heart attacks he couldn’t even do that. It was up to Ruth and Nelda and Fred (Minion’s son) to take care of the animals until they found someone to take them and they also had to deliver the newspapers. Fred helped tend the pecan grove that was in back of the house in Central, when he was feeling ok. He used to sit and shell pecans by the hours just to have something to do.
Nelda remembers helping plant a garden and flowers. Her Dad set up a horse shoe pit and they played often. He always won and never let her win. He loved pitching horse shoes and I say that’s where Nelda learned to do it so well. All of Fred and Ann’s children liked to pitch horse shoes. Fred grew cotton at different times and all of his children knew how to weed, thin and pick cotton.
On December 15, 1955 Fred drove Nelda to Safford to take care of a traffic ticket she had gotten. Part of her punishment was that he drove and didn’t let her drive. He was sitting in a chair waiting for her to take care of the ticket and had a massive heart attack and died instantly before anyone could even get to him. Cotton worked right across the street and was called but that is all that was remembered.
Fred died at the age of 69. He was buried in the Central Cemetery.
