Charlotte "Lotta" Mignon Crabtree was born on November 7, 1847, in New York City, moved to Grass Valley, California, in late spring of 1853, and in the fall of 1854 moved with the Crabtree family to Rabbit Creek, later La Porte. There Mart Taylor, a saloon owner with a small theater, taught her the jig, the reel, and sentimental ballads. In 1855, when she was eight years old, she gave her first public performance in Rabbit Creek and began entertaining miners in California's gold fields. She worked as a professional actress for 37 years and retired at 45. When she died on September 25, 1924, in her seventy-seventh year, the New York Times called her the immortal child.