Lottie (Grounds) Crozier was born near Hackberry, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, on December 18, 1888, the daughter of Melissa (Cureton) and Bud Grounds. She was named for Lottie Cook Miller, a schoolteacher friend of her mother. Lottie had some formal education that was supplemented by home study and reading. She married Samuel Franklin Crozier, and the couple lived on ranches in California and Colorado, as well as in Arizona.

Lottie and Samuel had six children, two of whom predeceased her. Their children, Rose, Dorothy (Chafin), Jean (McElliott) and James Cedric were all born in Fresno, California, because Lottie always went to be with her mother when her babies were due to be born.

Brown’s Hole, Colorado, where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid lived, was the Croziers’ home for a while. But Lottie did not like it there. They moved to Snake River Road, which she liked better even though it was a lonely place with hardly anyone there but cattle rustlers. The children had a teacher who came to the ranch and stayed until the family moved to Hayden, Colorado, where they went to school.

In 1933, the Croziers came back to Arizona and ranched on Walnut Creek. “Life was not easy for my parents and other adults,” Lottie’s daughter Dorothy wrote in her manuscript "Fond Memories."  “There were few conveniences and no easy access. We had a telephone but with a party line so everyone could listen along the way. We had a modern bathroom that didn’t work, so we used the outside facilities. We also had a Delco system for lights that seldom worked, especially if we had company.”

While in Prescott, the Croziers lived on one side of a house on S. Pleasant and Union streets. The other half of the house was occupied by the Lawlers. The families liked to sit on the porch and listen to the band music that musicians played on the plaza.

Lottie was an attentive mother. And, no matter where she lived, Lottie entered into the life of the community. She served as president of the Parent-Teachers Association and became well known as a practitioner in the First Church of Christ Scientist.

When Lottie died on July 29, 1963, she was living in Wickenburg, Arizona, where she was buried. Her sister-in-law, Vernie Crozier, is also represented in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.

Donor: Dorothy Chafin, daughter, May 2005 (Clarifying information supplied by Norma Jane Crozier, 2010)
Photo Located:  Digital Format Only - I-Drive>Rose Garden Photos & Bios
Updated: 6/6/2015; D. Sue Kissel

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