They say Mary Fields had “the temperament of a grizzly bear” and a quick hand on the draw, but it would be her devotion to her community that made her a legend across the Wild West.
Aloft on a stagecoach pull by a team of horses , Stagecoach Mary Fields covered over 300 miles every week to give birth mail across the West at the tour of the 20th century .
The six - foot - grandiloquent courier was said to have “ the disposition of a silver-tip bear ” and maintain a revolver and a rifle on her somebody . When she was n’t delivering mail , the postwoman of the Wild West was usually seen at the saloon or smoking a cigar . As the first black woman to ride for the U.S. Postal Service , Mary Fields was n’t just tough , but she was one of a kind .
Her gumption and novelty aside , it was Stagecoach Mary ’s commitment to her community that transformed her into a fable . This is her history .
Unknown/Wikimedia CommonsMother Mary Amadeus Dunne.
Mary Fields First Foray Into The West
Because she was born a striver in 1832 in Hickman County , Tennessee , the detail of Mary Fields ’ former living are jolly unsure . According to some biographers , her female parent was a home striver and her beginner a field of study hard worker .
Fields ’ life story amount into focusing for historians after she became a free woman in her 30s following the Civil War . Then , Fields reportedly left Tennessee for Mississippi where she work as a maid on the steamboatRobert E. Lee .
She eventually took a job as a handmaid in the home of Judge Edmund Dunne in Ohio where she met Dunne ’s sister , Mother Amadeus , who was the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent in Toledo . Mother Mary Amadeus brought subject field on to work out at the convent as a groundskeeper , but Fields quickly ruffled some feathers there . When one babe call for Fields about her journey to Toledo , Fields answer that she ask “ a good cigar and a drink . ”
Unknown/Wikimedia CommonsSaint Peter’s Mission, 17 miles from Cascade, Montana.
strange / Wikimedia CommonsMother Mary Amadeus Dunne .
Anothernun kvetch , “ God help anyone who walked on the lawn after Mary had turn off it . ” The fiery groundskeeper with a “ hard ” nature even loudly complained about her pay .
In 1885 , Mary Fields left Ohio behind to travel west to St. Peter ’s Convent in the wilds of Montana where Mother Amadeus had established a child ’s embarkment school . Mother Amadeus had fall sick with pneumonia and in person called for field to serve the nuns and suck her back to wellness .
Unknown/Ursuline Sisters ArchivesMary Fields sitting on her stagecoach.
Unknown / Wikimedia CommonsSaint Peter ’s Mission , 17 miles from Cascade , Montana .
After Mother Amadeus ’ recuperation , Fields decided to settle in at the new convent . She get hold of over the convent ’s patrol wagon squad and hauled provision . She also transported visitors to and from the train place . And when her paddy wagon flipped after a ingroup of wolves spooked the Equus caballus , Mary Fields guard the supplies for an entire night , single - handedly fending off the pack .
Becoming The First Black Woman To Carry Mail
When she was n’t assisting the nuns and students and seeing to the chickens and vegetables on the Ursuline Convent , Mary Fields visited gin mill , gravel into fisticuffs , and fume cigar . She also school with a revolver and rifle , take in a repute as a crack shot .
Her temperament , though part of her good luck charm , would also be her undo at the Convent when a heated encounter with a janitor caught the attention of Montana ’s Bishop Brondell . Fields and the Convent ’s janitor had pulled guns on each other during an line and Brondell accordingly had her removed from her location there .
But Mary Fields still had a strong ally in Mother Amadeus who encouraged athletic field to move to nearby Cascade , Montana , where she was the only black house physician . At first , the conical buoy help her to finance a restaurant but the business organisation break down .
Unknown/Wikimedia CommonsA photograph of St. Peters Mission. Stagecoach Mary is on the right.
In 1895 , Mother Mary Amadeus help theater to apply for another job as a postal service common carrier for the U.S. Postal Service . By now , Mary Fields was in her 60s .
Unknown / Ursuline Sisters ArchivesMary Fields sitting on her stagecoach .
Mary Fields secured the position when she catch a squad of six horses to a postal bus quicker than any other applier . She then began her daily , 17 - mile trek from Cascade to St. Peter ’s . She was the second woman in U.S. history to taunt a mail itinerary .
Frederic Remington/Amon Carter Museum of American ArtThe Old Stage-Coach of the Plains, a 1901 painting by Frederic Remington.
As the only black woman deliver mail in the West , Mary Fields stand out . She earned the soubriquet “ Stagecoach Mary ” as she depend upon her route carrying a rifle and a revolver .
Stagecoach Mary worked as a headliner route carrier , protecting the mail from brigand . She rode her stagecoach to the train station to pick up mail and then delivered it on several routes , some of which were more than 40 miles . In all , Stagecoach Mary drive over 300 Admiralty mile each week to deliver the mail .
When winter snow blocked the roads , Mary Fields threw a chain armor sack on her shoulder and walked over 30 geographical mile hold out snowshoes . Montanans applauded Mary Fields for her commitment – and her benignity .
The Legend Of Stagecoach Mary
In her 60s and 70s , Stagecoach Mary had become a local legend . At 200 pound , she vow that she could knock out any man with a individual punch — and she never miss a bet .
The mayor of Cascade declared that Mary Fields could drink in the saloon , ca-ca her the only woman at the bar who was n’t a working girl .
Unknown / Wikimedia CommonsA photo of St. Peters Mission . Stagecoach Mary is on the right .
On her 81st natal day , local newspaperAnaconda Standardwrote of Stagecoach Mary :
“ Mary ’s friend claim if a fly land on the ear of one of [ her horse ] , she could use her choice of either shooting it off or picking it off with her party whip oddment . And if she was in a mind to , she could break the fly ’s hind leg with her whip and then scud its eye out with a six-shooter . ”
After eight years of delivering the mail , Mary Fields left her stage behind and open up a laundry business . While at a local bar , Fields blob a customer who had n’t paid his two - dollar laundry neb . She left the bar , punched the customer , and returned to declare , “ His laundry bill is paid . ”
In Cascade, Montana, Fields Was A Beloved Figure
Though the American frontier is often consociate with brigand , thieves , and bigot , Mary Fields managed to make friend wherever she traveled . The proprietor of the local Cascade Hotel , for instance , mandated that Fields could eat there for free the residuum of her life .
Two years later when her menage and occupation burn to the background , the townsfolk all total together to build Stagecoach Mary a raw home .
Despite her grit , she was beloved by her neighbor who entrusted her with their child . She made bouquets of flowers for the local baseball squad as one of their bragging supporters .
Frederic Remington / Amon Carter Museum of American ArtThe Old Stage - Coach of the Plains , a 1901 house painting by Frederic Remington .
When Mary Fields died on December 5 , 1914 , her funeral was among the prominent the township of Cascade had yet see .
Gary Cooper , who would go on to become a Hollywood star in dozens of Westerns , met Mary Fields in Cascade when he was nine years quondam . days later , Coopereulogized :
“ bear a striver somewhere in Tennessee , some say in 1832 , Mary lived to become one of the freest souls to ever thread a breath or a .38 . ”
Stagecoach Mary Fields was n’t the only Black American in the Wild West . Learn about theblack cowboyswho shaped the West and then arrest out the narrative ofCalamity Jane .
