Mary Fields - Infinite Women

Born: 1832 or 1833, United States
Died: 5 December 1914
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Stagecoach Mary

The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.

“Stagecoach Mary” Fields may seem like an unconventional mail carrier by today’s standards, but the gun-toting, hot-tempered, six-foot-tall Mary was exactly the right person to protect her cargo in 1890s Montana. She was also, in her early 60s, the second woman and first African-American woman to carry mail on a Star Route for the U.S. Post Office Department.
Born into slavery circa 1832 or 1833, she was emancipated at the end of the U.S. Civil War and left West Virginia. She began working on steamboats before arriving at the Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart in Toledo, Ohio, where she did laundry, managed supplies, oversaw the kitchen and maintained the garden and grounds. Next she went west, doing similar jobs for Saint Peter’s Mission near Cascade, Montana, also run by the Ursulines and home to the Toledo Convent’s former mother superior, Fields’s friend Mother Amadeus Dunne.
However, Fields had a reputation for drinking and smoking in saloons with men and wearing men’s clothing, as well as her temper and often crass behavior. Reputedly, things came to a head when she got into an argument with a male staff member that led to both drawing pistols. Though neither gun was fired, Mary was, at the insistence of the local bishop. Staying in the Cascade area, she tried her hand at the restaurant business, but reportedly failed due to her habit of feeding people for free if they couldn’t afford to pay. Next was a laundry shop, supplemented by various odd jobs.
In 1895 with help from the Ursulines, Fields contracted with the Post Office as a Star Route Carrier, an independent contractor who delivered mail while braving northern Montana’s harsh climate, bandits and even wolves. Driving her stagecoach and armed with both a rifle and a revolver, Fields was known to be fearless during her eight years in the role. She was also beloved by locals for this, as well as her generosity and kindness to children. She even became the local baseball team’s mascot, and drank and ate for free at local establishments.
After her tenure as a mail carrier, she returned to her other businesses: laundry, restaurant and odd jobs like baby-sitting. After her death in 1914, the community raised funds to have her buried at a cemetery on her route, between Cascade and the Ursuline mission. Her funeral was one of the largest the town had ever seen.