Doña Benicia came from a long line of strong women. Her mother was one of the first woman winemakers in Sonoma County. At the age of 17, she traveled for four weeks by mule while pregnant to reach her husband, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and was the mother of 16 children of which ten survived to adulthood.
After the founding of Benicia, named after her, she began to go by that name instead of Francisca and was thereafter known as Doña Benicia.