On November 4, 1872 Susan B. Anthony and a group of women from Monroe County, New York asserted what they believed to be their "citizen's right to vote" and cast their ballots in the Presidential election. Their action represented the culmination of thirty years of suffrage activism. Three days later Anthony was tried and would be convicted of illegally voting.

Colonel Arthur Tracy Lee (1814-1879) served as a regimental officer in the US Eighth Infantry for twenty-three years, twelve in Texas. He joined the army in the late 1830s serving in various posts before arriving in Texas in 1849. Lee, at that time a captain, was part of a force sent to west Texas to protect white settlers who were encroaching on Indian territory. His regiment was encamped at various posts including Camp Worth, Fort Croghan and Fort Martin Scott.

During the 1700s, Charles M. de Lepee of France sought to provide a means of communication for those who were mute or deaf by devising a series of hand gestures known as a "manual alphabet," more familiarly known today as sign language. This 1856 advertisement for the "Single Handed Alphabet," was published by George W.