[3] Her father, Elias, was the son of Elijah Pennington, a soldier who served under General George Washington at Valley Forge during the American Revolutionary War.

In June 1857, the Penningtons temporarily stopped at Sonoita Creek, next to Fort Buchanan, because their animals were either exhausted, or had been stolen by Apache, and Larcena had contracted malaria.

The men obtained a contract from the government to supply the fort with hay and the women sewed soldiers' uniforms for pay.

Before September 1859 they moved into the former residence of Governor Manuel Maria Gandara, who was displaced after the United States victory in the Mexican–American War.

[1] After they married, Larcena moved from the fort to Tucson, but her husband lived and worked at Canoa Ranch, south of present-day Green Valley.

Page decided to move his wife and Mercedes out of the desert and into a cabin near the "Big Rock" at the lumber mill.

The next morning, Randall went out to hunt for breakfast and, at around 10:00 am, Page rode up the canyon to check on a load of lumber at the mill, leaving Larcena and Mercedes alone at camp.

After stealing "whatever they could" and cutting open the Pages' sacks of food, the Apache took the two women northeast, who walked roughly along the base of the Santa Rita Mountains, toward one of their strongholds along the San Pedro River.

Robert H. Forbes, author of Penningtons: Pioneers of Early Arizona, wrote that up to that time, neither of the captives had been molested in any way, but Larcena later said that the Apache "pre-tended to ambush them from behind trees or play-fully pointed the captured pistol at them.

The journey to the San Pedro was rough, but both Larcena and Mercedes tore off pieces of their clothing and bent twigs to make an easily recognizable trail.

Their hats were restored to them from the plunder and fair progress was made...."[1][4] Page had not been killed and returned to camp to discover both his wife and Mercedes missing.

Ten days after her "terrible journey" began,[1] on March 26, she climbed to the top of a ridge and saw the road that leads to Madera Canyon and the camp.

When Larcena reached the camp, two days later, she found a smoldering campfire, some flour and some coffee that was still on the ground from when the Apaches cut open the sacks of food.

Using water from a nearby stream, and a piece of her clothing, Larcena prepared some bread on the fire, made some coffee, and then rested for the night.

With clotted hair and gaping wounds, nearly naked, emaciated and sunburned, she was at first mistaken for an unfortunate outcast squaw and the men ran for their guns.

But even then, one man, named Smith, insisted that she was a ghost because he couldn't believe that a twenty-three-year-old woman could survive so long under such trying circumstances.

One of the men took Larcena into a building and had her fed and washed while another man went to get a doctor in Tucson and inform John, who was preparing for a third expedition to find his wife.

The young Mexican girl, Mercedes, was later found by the United States Army and traded for Apache prisoners at Fort Buchanan.

[1] In 1861 the American Civil War was about to begin and Larcena was worried that the Apaches would turn more violent with the absence of military personnel.

Due to the Bascom Affair, Chief Cochise and Mangas Coloradas were attacking American settlements all across southern New Mexico Territory.

In March or April 1861, her husband, John, was ambushed and killed by Apache north of Tucson while transporting a wagon load of goods to Old Camp Grant.

In the later part of August 1861, her brother, Jack, saved a fellow settler from Apaches during the Battle of Cookes Canyon.

In September 1861, Larcena gave birth to her daughter, Mary Ann, and shortly thereafter she moved again, to Tubac and later to a stone house along the Santa Cruz, about a half-mile from the international border with Mexico.

The stone house was located in a dangerous area, frequented by Apaches, and at one point Larcena had to flee to Mowry, a small, fortified, mining town.