[3][4] Her father, John Ashworth Crabtree, a book seller, left for San Francisco in 1851 to join those seeking fortune in the California Gold Rush.

[6] The Crabtrees moved again and set up another boarding house, this time in Rabbit Creek, 40 miles north of Grass Valley.

Rowena Granice Steele had established The Gaieties, Temple of Mirth and Song theater and saloon in that year, and Crabtree, her protege, was one of the early performers at that venue.

[10] Crabtree's mother served as her manager and collected all of Lotta's earnings in gold, carrying it in a large leather bag.

[11] The embodiment of fun and frolic, Crabtree mugged for the audience, twisted her finger in her dimple, stuffed coins thrown on stage to her into the tops of her stockings, and overall personified the happy scamp.

[12] Having made a name for herself in California, in 1864 Crabtree left to tour the East Coast, where she began acting in plays, in theaters, such as The Old Curiosity Shop, Uncle Tom's Cabin and Little Nell and the Marchioness.

Her mother Mary Ann was still managing Crabtree's affairs: booking plays, finding locations, and organizing troupes of actors.

When the steamer trunk became too heavy, she invested Crabtree's earnings in local real estate,[15][16][17] race horses and bonds.

After her tour abroad, Crabtree returned to San Francisco where she played at the California Theatre, reprising her role in Little Nell and the Marchioness by John Bowen.

[22] In 1885, Crabtree's mother had an 18-room summer cottage built in the Breslin Park section of Mount Arlington, New Jersey, on the shores of Lake Hopatcong.

Named Attol Tryst (Lotta spelled backward), the house was designed by noted architect Frank Furness.

After recovering in Lake Hopatcong, she attempted a comeback in 1891, but a lack of public enthusiasm persuaded her to retire permanently from the stage.

Children who walked to school through her land in those days often passed by two small markers of local granite set into the ground, engraved "Ruby Royal" and "Sonoma Girl" – two of the Crabtrees' horses.