Stagecoach Mary Fields (1831-1914)

First Black Woman to Deliver Mail in United States

When her long-time friend, Mother Amadeus, feel ill Mary rode to the rescue. She came from Toledo, Ohio to Cascade, Montana to take care of her friend and stayed to help build a school St. Peter’s Mission for Native American girls. Mary stay and did what was considered man’s work; setting fences, hauling freight, building repairs, and garden to help the nuns.

The Bishop eventually kicked her off the grounds for profanity and gunplay with a male worker at the mission, so the nuns got her work in town. They even helped her open a restaurant/tavern but that did not last long as Mary was too soft-hearted often allowing the cash-poor dine for free.

Finally, the sisters asked the government to give Mary a mail route, but she had to win it first by hooking up a team of horses faster than anyone else. So she did. She held this job for eight years, never missing a day regardless of bad terrain, wild animals, bandits or freezing temperatures, and that’s when she became known as STAGECOACH MARY.

Fields stood 6-foot and weighed 200-pounds (living history storyteller Rosieletta Reed reimagining Stagecoach Mary). She began to smoke cigars, hang out in the saloon, drink whiskey, and play cards with the men. She continued to settled her arguments with her fists, and once in a while with her six-shooter.

She was a beloved member of the community. Later in life she opened a laundry in her home and often babysat the children in town. Since she did not have family the town of Cascade, Montana helped bury her.

Stagecoach Mary card shark, fighter, mail woman but gentle with those she loved the nuns and children.