Mary Fields was born in Hickman County, Tennessee, in 1832. For the first thirty years of her life, she worked in the cotton fields as an enslaved person. As with most enslaved people, information about her early life is virtually nonexistent. Records from that time often listed enslaved individuals not by name but by numbers in ledgers, treated as property rather than people.
By the time she reached adulthood, Mary stood six feet tall and weighed around two hundred pounds, towering over most of the men and women around her. The end of the American Civil War in 1865 brought the abolition of slavery, and Mary was finally freed after more than three decades of bondage. Uncertain what to do next, she followed the path of many other former slaves and headed north in search of a new life. She found work as a laundress and servant on Mississippi River steamboats, then reportedly served in the home of Judge Edmund Dunn in San Antonio, Florida.
When Judge Dunn’s wife Josephine died, he asked Mary to take his five children to their aunt in Ohio. The long journey ended at the Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart in Toledo, where the children’s aunt, Mother Amadeus Dunn, served as Mother Superior. Mary had successfully fulfilled her duty. When the nuns asked how the trip had gone, she replied that it was fine, and added that she could really use a cigar and a drink back with Edmund in Florida.
With the children safely under their aunt’s care, Mary had no employer. The convent quickly hired her as a groundskeeper, though the nuns had little idea what they were getting into. The convent was peaceful and disciplined; Mary was the opposite. For the next fifteen years she worked there, receiving lodging, meals, clothing, and fifty dollars a year in pay.
The quiet order changed completely after her arrival. She was loud, expressed herself however she saw fit, and raised eyebrows throughout the convent. She kept the grounds in immaculate shape, but her behavior intimidated many of the nuns. One nun recorded: “God help anyone who walked on the lawn after Mary had cut it.
” She swore, complained about her low pay, and would fight anyone, man or woman, at any moment. White women of the era expected African Americans to be well behaved and subservient, but Mary did not fit that norm, and many nuns complained about her temper and difficult nature. Despite her struggles adjusting to convent life, Mary made one important friend: Mother Amadeus Dunn. The highly respected and much adored Mother Superior was known for her charisma and fearlessness.
The two women got along well, and their friendship blossomed. In 1884, Mother Amadeus was called by her bishop to missionary work and sent to Montana Territory to establish schools for Native American children. A year later, she fell seriously ill, possibly with pneumonia. Despite all her flaws, Mary had a strong sense of loyalty and a heart of gold.
As soon as she heard her friend was sick, she dropped everything and made the sixteen-hundred-mile trip alone to rush to Cascade, Montana. She stayed with Mother Amadeus until the woman fully recovered, and she was vital in nursing her back to health. Mary originally planned to return to the convent in Ohio once her friend was better, but she decided she liked the West and chose to stay. She began working at a Montana convent near Cascade, helping to build churches and other surrounding buildings.
She was an effective worker and refused men’s help while carrying heavy loads of lumber and stone on her back. Once construction was complete, she continued working for the convent, but now she had a much more direct relationship with the nuns. Although she faithfully served the nuns in the harsh, isolated community, her attitude and actions increasingly concerned the bishop. Within only a few months, several people had complained about her.
Not only did she smoke, drink, and swear, but she also dressed like a man. These behaviors were not in line with the Catholic Church’s values and caused tension. The final straw came when Mary argued with the convent’s disrespectful janitor. Things turned violent, and both drew guns on each other.
After that, the bishop ordered her to leave the convent and never return. For the first time in many years, Mary was free to decide what she wanted to do, but she still had to support herself. She took odd jobs: working on a farm, growing crops, looking after animals, doing laundry, and repairing buildings. Around this time, the Native Americans in the area nicknamed her “White Crow,” apparently because she acted like a white woman but had black skin.
She was the first and one of the only African Americans in town, and local white residents did not know what to think of her. One schoolgirl wrote an essay about Mary: “She drinks whiskey and she swears and she’s a Republican, which makes her a low, foul creature. ” Yet with time, opinions in the town changed. Mary opened a restaurant and decided to sell food to anyone, regardless of whether they could pay.
Her tendency to give free meals to the needy bankrupted the business in just ten months, and the restaurant closed. Around this time, she was frequently found in saloons, drinking strong liquor and getting into gunfights. In 1895, her old friend Mother Amadeus donated a stagecoach to encourage travel in the remote region, which also allowed the U. S.
Post Office to open a star route for faster mail delivery. Although Mary was around sixty-three years old, she was hired by the U. S. Postal Service as a mail courier.
She won the sought-after position despite competition because of her tough reputation and by hitching horses into the harness faster than the other applicants, all men around half her age. She became the second woman and the first African American to work as a star route carrier. Her job was not easy. She was responsible for safely delivering and protecting mail from thieves and bandits.
She received mail from certain trains, loaded it into the stagecoach, and navigated difficult terrain, from rough roads to muddy fields. She quickly built a reputation for reliability and never missed a day of work, earning the nickname “Stagecoach Mary. ” She handled a team of several horses and a mule named Moses. When heavy snow made the horses unable to move, she strapped on snowshoes, threw the mail bags over her shoulders, and walked into town.
Despite her intimidating height, size, tough demeanor, and reputation, some still thought they could get the better of her. Mary carried a rifle and a revolver, and troublemakers could be quickly dealt with by a single well-placed bullet. Rumor had it that she fended off an angry pack of wolves with her rifle, a claim that may well be true, as she was known to be a very effective shooter. Her temperament was compared to that of a grizzly bear.
Stagecoach Mary was not to be crossed under any circumstances, yet many fools did so anyway. In one case, a man seriously offended Mary, and she responded by pelting him with rocks until he cried. In another, a cowboy challenged her to a duel. She accepted.
When the duel began, she drew her six-shooter so fast that her opponent stood no chance. She purposely shot close to his head so he could feel the wind of the bullet. The frightened man immediately conceded and never spoke to her again. She became a respected and beloved figure in Cascade.
Although she was strong and intimidating, the locals admired her generosity and kindness, especially toward children. The town’s schools closed each year on her birthday to celebrate her. Thanks to her fame, local restaurants gave her free meals, and in saloons everyone wanted to talk to her. When Montana passed a law forbidding women from entering saloons, Mary was no longer allowed into one of her favorite places.
But the mayor of Cascade granted her an exemption; besides, nobody was brave enough to try to keep her out. In 1903, at seventy-one years old, age finally caught up with her. After eight years of duty, Mary Fields retired from the star route mail carrier service. For the remainder of her life, she dedicated herself to babysitting Cascade children and ran a laundry service from her home.
Mary Fields died of liver failure on December 5, 1914, at Columbus Hospital in Great Falls, at the age of eighty-two. The whole town mourned her. Her death signaled the end of an era. The West was full of strong and courageous people, but none of them were like Stagecoach Mary.
She was described as one of the freest souls to ever draw breath. Mary Fields was buried outside Cascade, and her funeral was one of the largest the town had ever seen.