ROUGH AND RUGGED STAGECOACH MARY

"I am bold, smoke a big black cigar, I drink whiskey, I carry a pistol, I love adventure, I am independent.  Nobody tells me what to do, nobody tells me where to go." -- Mary Fields.

Hello Lovelies!

Another legend of the Old West was a gun-totin' six foot tall, two hundred pound Black woman better known as Stagecoach Mary.  She made all of her deliveries on time regardless of the weather and she was never robbed during her tenure as a star route carrier.  She was two-fisted and powerful, packed a pair of six shooters and eight gauge shotgun. Who was going to mess with her?

She was not officially an employee of the US Postal Service, because they did not hire or employ mail carriers for star routes.  Star routes were contracted out to bid and in accordance with the Department’s application process posted bonds and sureties to substantiate their ability to finance the route.  Once a contract was obtained, the contractor could drive the route themselves, subcontract or hire an experience driver for the route.  Mary Fields was the first Black person and second woman, Sarah Black was the first woman in 1845, to obtain a star route mail and package carrier service in the United States. 

Born around 1832 on a plantation in Hickman County, Tennessee, she lived there with her parents until the end of the Civil War.  As a free Black woman, she worked various labor jobs throughout the south.  She worked on the estate of Judge Edmund Dunne, performing menial chores, until the death of his wife Josephine. Mary was then tasked to deliver his five children from San Antonio, Florida to his sister Sarah “Dolly” Dunne in Toledo, Ohio.  Mary lived in Toledo, did the hard labor at the convent while becoming good friends with Dolly.  Dolly Dunne, Mother Mary Amadeus, left to start a children’s boarding school in Montana for the settlers at St. Peter’s Mission and convinced Mary to join her. Once she arrived at the mission it was badly in need of repair.  Mary organized and supervised a team of men to make the improvements.

On one occasion a male worker resented her telling him what to do and backhanded her across the mouth.  Mary shot at the man when he reached for his gun, scared him away  and never messed with her again.  Despite working for the mission for many years, the altercation led to her being asked to leave.  I have read many variations of this story, as well as other stories of her exploits, not sure which one is true, but it makes for interesting tall tales.

Mary applied for work as a star route mail carrier on the new United States Mail Service route opening in the Cascade Mountains.  After having to prove she could defend herself  and her cargo from highwaymen, demonstrating her talent with horses and driving a stage, Mary Fields, who was the oldest person (she was 63 years old), to get the star route contract for the delivery of U. S. mail from Cascade, Montana to Saint Peter's Mission in 1885. She drove the route on with a wagon with a team of horses from 1885 to 1903. Although the snow was too high for the wagon, she and her trusted mule, Moses, never missed a day, it was in this aptitude that she became known as Stagecoach Mary for her unfailing reliability. 

The Mary Fields of legend is often described as a masculine imposing figure, however her traditionally feminine attributes were typically underplayed, she favored wearing skirts, loved growing flowers and she enjoyed playing with the neighbor's children.  Mary, a proud and independent woman, retired with the Postal Service after ten years of service.  She settled down in Cascade owning a laundry and babysitting her neighbor’s children whenever needed.  As a big baseball fan, she past her time by socializing with the men at the baseball field and drank hard liquor with them at the saloon.  In 1914 she became very ill and was taken to Columbus Hospital in Great Falls where she later died of liver failure at the age of 82.  A simple wooden cross marks her grave site at the Hillside Cemetery, located at the foot of the peaceful trail between Cascade and St. Peter’s Mission, a trail she has traveled for many years with the US Postal Service.

Stagecoach Mary Fields was well loved by the residents of Cascade, Montana, they celebrate her birthday every year in honor of her.  Author Miantae Metcalf McConnell provided documentation she discovered during her research about Mary Fields to the United States Postal Service Archives Historian in 2006. This enabled USPS to establish Mary Fields' contribution as the first African American woman star route mail in the United States.

To read more on this feisty woman, Mary Fields check out these sites:

Black Cowboys
The Black West, by William Katz
Deliverance Mary Fields, by Miantae Metcalf McConnell