Mary Fields
Mary Fields (c. 1832 - 1914) was the first African American woman and second woman to become a U.S. postal service contract mail carrier. Though little is known about her early life, she was born into enslavement in the Tennessee area. She was enslaved by a family in West Virginia leading up to the Civil War. She was most likely emancipated shortly after the war.
In the late 1870s, Mary worked as a housekeeper at the Ursuline Convent in Toledo, Ohio. She was known for being capable of doing what was considered 'men's work' at the time.
After the convent's Mother Superior was transferred, Mary eventually relocated to Montana to care for her after she had taken ill. She worked for St. Peter's Mission just outside of Cascade, Montana, where her companion resided, doing maintenance and repair work, laundry, gardening, and ferrying supplies from nearby towns to the mission. She also drank in saloons with men, was known for having a hot temper, and may have even once gotten into a gunfight with a man. Because of this behavior, the Montana diocese ordered the convent to dismiss Mary.
She was then said to have attempted to open a few eateries in Cascade, but these failed due to her generosity in allowing those unable to pay to eat for free.
In 1895, in her early sixties, Mary obtained the postal service contract for mail between Cascade and St. Peter's Mission. This was a difficult and dangerous route, and she earned the name 'Stagecoach Mary.' Standing at six feet tall, bandits quickly learned to steer clear of Stagecoach Mary, known for carrying both a rifle and revolver. She worked for the postal service of eight years.
Mary spent the latter half of her life running a laundry service and babysitting children. She continued drinking in saloons and was a staple of Cascade during her lifetime. After her death in 1914, the townspeople raised money to have her buried in a cemetery on a road that linked Cascade to the Mission. Her funeral was said to be one of the largest the town had seen.
