A natural entrepreneur, she marketed her milk and produce to the sailors from whaling ships or those who arrived in port for the hide and tallow trade.

She trained her nephew, Pablo Briones – who was later known as the Doctor of Bolinas (California) – in medicinal arts, although she never received a formal education and could not read or write.

[citation needed] In 1844 Juana, who already had more than one home, gained a clerical separation from her physically abusive alcoholic husband and dropped his surname.

From the late 1850s through the 1860s she had to fight to retain the title to her land in both San Francisco and Santa Clara counties but succeeded with the help of attorney Henry Wager Halleck.

Other than the unusual method of using materials, the original home exhibited the familiar layout of the traditional adobe: a strip of connected rooms with an external corridor.

[12] Stanford University history professor Albert Camarillo has done additional research on Briones and served as guest curator of the 2014 exhibition at the California Historical Society.