Mary Fields

1832 – Dec 5, 1914

“Stagecoach Mary”

Born a slave in Tennessee
1865 – freed when slavery was outlawed
1870 – Worked on the steamboat Robert E. Lee
1884 – moved to Montana
1885 – first African American woman to become a U.S. postal service Star Route mail carrier
1885 – 1889 – 1st Star Route
1889 – 1893 – 2nd Star Route
1894 – opened a restaurant in Cascade, MT Fields would serve food to anyone, whether they could pay or not (closed in 10 months)
1895 – at 60+ years old, Fields was hired as a mail carrier
This made her the second woman &
first African American woman to work for the U.S. Postal Service
At 60 yrs old, she was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses
If the snow was too deep for her horses, Fields delivered the mail in snowshoes
hard-drinking, quick-shooting mail carrier sported two guns
fended off an angry pack of wolves with her rifle
1910 – When the local motel was sold, a stipulation to the transaction was that all meals for Mary Fields would be offered free of charge for the rest of her life
1912 – her laundry business and her home burned down, the townspeople gathered and built her a new home.
1914 – her funeral was one of the largest the town had ever seen
1959 – actor Gary Cooper met Fields when he was a child, and wrote an account of his memories of her in Ebony magazine
2015-2016 – AMC series, “Hell On Wheels”, featured in 5 episodes, Fields is played by Amber Chardae Robinson

“She drinks whiskey, and she swears, and she is a republican, which makes her a low, foul creature.”
schoolgirl’s essay writing about “Stagecoach Mary”

“Born a slave somewhere in Tennessee, Mary lived to become one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath, or a .38.”
Montana native Gary Cooper

About Mary Fields

Mary Fields, known as “Stagecoach Mary,” was born into slavery in Tennessee in the early 1830s and was freed after the Civil War, when she worked as a chambermaid on the steamboat Robert E. Lee. In the mid-1880s she went to Montana Territory to help at St. Peter’s Mission near Cascade, where she grew food, hunted and hauled supplies. After leaving the mission she briefly ran an eatery in Cascade, which failed within about a year.

In 1895, around age 60, Fields won a star route mail contract between Cascade and St. Peter’s Mission, a job she held through two four-year terms until 1903. The U.S. Postal Service recognizes her as the first African American woman to hold a star route contract; star route carriers were private contractors, not postal employees, so that is the most accurate way to describe her achievement. She was known for carrying firearms on her route, reportedly including a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, and many of the colorful stories about her, such as fighting off wolves, come from later retellings. After retiring she ran a laundry business in Cascade, where townspeople rebuilt her home after it burned in 1912. She died on December 5, 1914 and is buried in Cascade. Actor Gary Cooper, who knew her as a boy, wrote a tribute to her in Ebony magazine in October 1959.

Key Facts

Early 1830s: Born into slavery in Tennessee
1884-1885: Arrives in Montana Territory to work at St. Peter’s Mission
1895-1903: Holds the star route mail contract between Cascade and St. Peter’s Mission
1912: Cascade residents rebuild her home after a fire
December 5, 1914: Dies; buried in Cascade, Montana
October 1959: Gary Cooper’s tribute “Stagecoach Mary” appears in Ebony

Sources

Profiles on Minuteman University.com are editorial content compiled from public sources. Inclusion does not imply endorsement of, sponsorship by, or affiliation with this site or the Gun Websites Firearms Network. Corrections and removal requests are welcome through Contact Us.