Historical Context

The Civil War within America had previously ended in 1865, four years after Grace Hebard had been born and 25 years before Wyoming officially became a state. The ending of this war ensured the freedom of African-Americans, and the right to vote for black men. This then raised a question: why, if the right to vote was granted for these men, couldn’t this right be granted to the women of America too? This sprouted the Wyoming’s Woman Suffrage Act of 1869, and women voted for the first time in 1870 in Laramie Wyoming. At the same time, Westward Expansion had begun around the 19th century, with railroads reaching to the west of America. Laramie was built along the Union Pacific Railroad as a tent town in 1868. By the time Grayce Raymond Hebard retired in 1931, Laramie had schools, churches and a university.