Mary Fields (abt. 1832 - 1914)

Born about 1832 in Hickman County, Tennessee, United States

Died 5 Dec 1914 at about age 82 in Great Falls, Cascade, Montana, United States

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Biography

This profile won Profile of the Week the Third week of July 2014.

Mary Fields is Notable.

Mary Fields was involved in the "Wild, Wild West," part of the westward expansion of the United States. Join the Wild Wild West Project.

Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, was the first African-American woman employed as a mail carrier in the United States.^[1]

Mary was born enslaved in Hickman County, Tennessee around 1832. She and her mother, Susannah were owned by Judge Dunne, a plantation owner. Susanna was his favorite cook. She also worked as personal servant to Mrs. Dunne. Mrs. Dunne allowed Mary to play with her own daughter, Dolly who would be called Sister Amadeus when she grew up and became a nun. Mary learned to read and write from Dolly. Mary's mother wanted her to have a last name. Since her husband, Buck, worked in the fields, her mother gave her the name Mary Fields.^[2]

When the Civil War broke out, the Dunnes left and the slaves had to fend for themselves. This is where Mary learned the hardscrabble life that she preferred in adulthood.

Fields was freed when American slavery was outlawed in 1865. Mary left for Mississippi to work as a chambermaid on the steamboat Robert E. Lee. She then worked in the home of Judge Edmund Dunne nursing his sick wife, Mary was soon escorting his five motherless children to their aunt, Mother Mary Amadeus, formerly known as Dolly and the Mother Superior of an Ursuline Convent in Toledo, Ohio.^[3]

Mother Amadeus was sent to Montana Territory to establish a school for Native American girls at St. Peter's Mission. Mary wanted to go along but everyone felt the life would be too rugged and made her stay behind. Nothing could stop her from going when her childhood friend became ill. Mary hurried to Montana to nurse her. Mother Amadeus recovered and Mary stayed at St. Peter's hauling freight, doing laundry, growing vegetables, tending chickens, repairing buildings and eventually serving as foreman. ^[4]

1884 Cascade, Montana

The Native Americans called Fields "White Crow" because "she acts like a white woman but has black skin." Local whites did not know what to make of her. One schoolgirl wrote an essay saying: "She drinks whiskey, and she swears, and she is a republican, which makes her a low, foul creature."^[5]

Mary smoked homemade cigars, drank, and carried a revolver holstered at her apron. She swore and got into fist fights. She had a standing bet at the saloon that she could knock out any comers with her fist. Mary also argued with farmhands and on one occasion punctuated her disagreement with a rancher by denting his forehead with a rock. She neglected her indoor chores, preferring to be outside with the ranch hands. The sisters tried to rehabilitate Mary through Catholicism. They also tried to cover for her by doing her chores. On one occasion this backfired when they tried to burn trash Mary left in her room. The trash had some scattered cartridges that went off and wounded one nun in the eye. ^[6]

In 1884 the Bishop kicked Mary out of the convent for bad behavior. Mary went all the way to the Capitol and demanded to be allowed to dispute these charges but the Bishop wouldn't discuss it so her plea was ignored.^[7]

Mary in Front of her Restaurant

Mother Amadeus helped Mary open a restaurant in nearby Cascade. Fields would serve food to anyone, whether they could pay or not, and the restaurant quickly went broke.^[8]

Mary Fields adopted the Cascade baseball team as her own. For each game she prepared buttonhole bouquets of flowers for each player from her own garden, with larger bouquets reserved for home-run hitters.

Mary and the Cascades

Any man speaking ill of the local team in her presence could expect a bouquet of knuckles in his face.^[9]

Stagecoach Mary Earns her Name

In 1895 at the age of 60, Fields was hired as a mail carrier because she "was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses." This made her the first African-American woman to work as a mail carrier.^[10] Mary worked as a Star Route Carrier. Star Route Carriers were contracted to deliver mail in difficult to reach places.

Mary and her mule, Moses, never failed to deliver the mail. Mary's reliability earned her the nickname "Stagecoach Mary." If the snow was too deep for the horses, Mary delivered the mail on snowshoes, carrying the heavy sacks.^[11][12]

Mary became so respected in Cascade that her birthday was reportedly celebrated by all the school children twice a year, since she didn't really know on which day she was born. Besides being their mail carrier, Mary had babysat most of the local children at $1.50 a day. The mayor of Cascade even granted Mary an exemption when Montana passed a law forbidding women to enter saloons.

Mary Fields died of liver failure in 1914.^[13] “Old Timer Passes Away,” ^[14] When she realized she was going to die, not wishing to be a burden, she wrapped herself in a blanket and went out to die in some weeds. Some men whom she had babysat in their youth discovered her and carried her to a hospital. Mary is buried at Hillside Cemetery, Cascade, Cascade County, Montana, USA.^[15]

In 1959, actor Gary Cooper, a Montana native, wrote an article for Ebony in which he said:

"Born a slave somewhere in Tennessee, Mary lived to become one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath, or a .38."^[16]

(information below here from the merge needs to be woven into the biography above)

Mary was the first African American woman to carry mail on a Star Route for the United States Post Office Department.

Mary Fields also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary, was the first African-American female star-route mail carrier in the United States. She was not an employee of the United States Post Office Department, which did not hire or employ mail carriers for star routes, but rather awarded star route contracts to persons who proposed the lowest qualified bids, and who, in accordance with the department’s application process, posted bonds and sureties to substantiate their ability to finance the route. Once a contract was awarded, the contractor could then drive the route themselves, sublet the route, or hire an experienced driver. Some individuals obtained multiple star route contracts and conducted the operations as a business. Mary Fields had 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 for two four-year contracts, from 1895 to 1899 and from 1899 to 1903.

Author Miantae Metcalf McConnell provided documentation discovered during her research about Mary Fields to the United States Postal Service Archives Historian in 2006. This enabled the USPS to establish Mary Fields' contribution as the first African-American female star route mail carrier in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fields

Mary Fields was born in Hickman County, Tennessee in 1832, during the administration of Andrew Jackson. Her father was unknown, but her mother’s name was Susanne Fields. For the first 30 years of her life, she worked as a slave and very little is known about her childhood. She worked for the Warner family in West Virginia in the years leading up to the Civil War. After the Civil War ended, she was emancipated and found work as a chambermaid onboard the Robert E. Lee, a Mississippi River steamboat. There, she encountered Judge Edmund Dunne and ultimately worked in his household as a servant. After Dunne’s wife died, he sent Mary Fields and his late wife’s five children to live with his sister, Mother Mary Amadus in Toledo, Ohio where she was Mother Superior of an Ursuline convent.

The convent hired Mary Fields as a groundskeeper almost immediately after her arrival. They gave her lodgings, food, clothing, and a yearly pay of fifty dollars. In 1884, Mother Amadeus was sent to Montana Territory to establish a school for Native American girls at St. Peter's Mission, west of Cascade, Montana. Upon learning that Mother Amadeus was stricken with pneumonia, Mary Fields hurried to Montana to nurse her back to health. Mother Amadeus recovered, and Mary Fields stayed at St. Peter's. This mission was run by Ursuline nuns. Mary performed maintenance and repair work. She also gardened and did the laundry. One major thing that Mary was also in charge of was the locating and delivery of supplies needed for the mission. Yet Mary had no official contract with the mission and nuns; thus, she was free to come and go as she pleased, taking additional work outside the mission. The Native Americans called Mary Fields "White Crow", because "she acts like a white woman but has black skin". Life in a nunnery was placid, but Mary Fields hearty temperament and habitual profanity made the religious community uncomfortable. In 1894, after several complaints and an incident with a disgruntled male subordinate that involved gunplay, the bishop barred her from the convent and Mary Fields moved to Cascade, Montana where she opened a tavern, but waned due to allowing the cash-poor to dine free. It closed due to bankruptcy about 10 months later. Mary also reportedly set up a laundry shop and did other odd jobs to make money. It is around this time that Mary’s drinking, gun toting, and smoking become well known to the townspeople of Cascade, Montana

In 1895, in her early sixties, Mary obtained a contract by the United States Post Office Department to be a Star Route Carrier. A Star Route Carrier was an independent contractor who used a stagecoach to deliver the mail in the harsh weather of northern Montana. Mary was the first African American woman and the second woman to receive a Star Route contract from the United States Post Office Department. This contract was secured with the help of the Ursuline nuns. The nuns wished to look out for Mary as they felt connected with her. This was because they did not wish to see her go as the nuns heavily relied on Mary for work done around the mission. Mary built a reputation of being fearless while working as a mail carrier. Mary’s job was not only to deliver the mail but to also protect the mail from bandits, thieves, wolves and the weather as well. Mary gained her nickname “Stagecoach Mary” due to her use of a stagecoach as a method of transportation to deliver the mail. Mary was also known for the guns she carried. During the time that Mary was delivering the mail, she was known to carry both a rifle and a revolver, most notably a .38 Smith & Wesson under her apron to protect herself and the mail from wolves, thieves and bandits, driving the route with horses and a mule named Moses. She never missed a day, and her reliability earned her the nickname "Stagecoach Mary" due to her preferred mode of transportation. If the snow were too deep for her horses, Fields delivered the mail on snowshoes, carrying the sacks on her shoulders.

Mary spent eight years delivering the mail as a Star Route Carrier. During this time, Mary became beloved by the locals of Cascade, Montana for her fearlessness and generosity, as well as for her kindness to children. In 1903, at age 71, Mary Fields retired from Star Route Mail carrier service. The townspeople's adoration for Fields was evident when her home was rebuilt by volunteers after it caught fire in 1912. She continued to babysit many Cascade children and owned and operated a laundry service from her home. The town closed its schools to celebrate her birthday each year. When Montana passed a law forbidding women to enter saloons, the mayor of Cascade granted her an exemption. She remained famous, even becoming the mascot for the town’s baseball team.

Mary Fields died on 5 December 1914, at Columbus Hospital in Great Falls. After her death, the townspeople raised money to have her buried in a cemetery on a road she drove frequently that linked Cascade to the mission. Mary’s funeral was said to be one of the largest in town.

Find A Grave: Memorial #8742943 Mary Fields

Films:

In the documentary South by Northwest, "Homesteaders" (1976), Fields is played by Esther Rolle.

In the TV movie The Cherokee Kid (1996), Fields is played by Dawnn Lewis.

In the TV movie Hannah's Law (2012), she is played by Kimberly Elise.

In the short Western, They Die By Dawn (2013), Fields is played by Erykah Badu.

Print:

In 1959, actor and Montana native Gary Cooper wrote an article for EBONY in which he wrote, "Born a slave somewhere in Tennessee, Mary lived to become one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath, or a .38."

"Stagecoach" Mary Fields, a screenplay by Georgianne Landy-Kordis

A biography for children, Fearless Mary: The True Adventures of Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver by Tami Charles

Music:

Fields is the subject of Michael Hearst's song "Stagecoach Mary", as part of his 2015 Extraordinary People project.

Television:

In the TV AMC series, "Hell On Wheels" (2011–2016), Fields is played by Amber Chardae Robinson, featured in five episodes during 2015–2016, season five.

Places:

Asteroid 7091 Maryfields, discovered by Kenneth Lawrence and Eleanor Helin at Palomar in 1992, was named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 2019 (M.P.C. 118218)

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia:Stagecoach Mary.
2. ↑ Waxahachiejournal Feature: Stagecoach Mary Fields.
3. ↑ Shirley, Gayle C. (2011) More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Montana Women, 2nd Ed. Globe Pequot Press: Guilford, Conn. p.5 ISBN 978-0-7627-6692-5
4. ↑ Alter, Judy (1999). Extraordinary Women of the American West. Children's Press, pp. 55-57
5. ↑ Wikitree:Stagecoach Mary.
6. ↑ The Life and Legend of Mary Fields.
7. ↑ History.org Mary Fields, Pioneer in Montana.
8. ↑ Jennifer M. Drewry, "Mary Fields a pioneer in Cascade’s past", Cascade Montana Community Website, originally published in March/April 1999 issue of Footsteps magazine; archived at the Wayback Machine].
9. ↑ Mary Fields, Female Pioneer of Montana.
10. ↑ Encyvlopedia of the Great Plains.
11. ↑ Legends of America, Mary Fields.
12. ↑ Examiner: Mary "White Crow" Fields.
13. ↑ Montana, Death Index, 1860-2007 Mary Fields, 05 Dec 1914; citing "Montana Death Index, 1907-2007,"
14. ↑ Cascade Courier, December 14, 1914. Copy in Fields, Mary, Vertical File, Montana Historical Society Research Center. Montana Historical Society.
15. ↑ Find A Grave.
16. ↑ Cooper, Gary and Marc Crawford (October 1959) "Stagecoach Mary". EBONY Magazine.

See also:

• Mary Wagner, Tricia Martineau. African American Women of the Old West. (Globe Pequot, 2007), page 13-25, biography of Mary Fields; digital copy can be borrowed at the Internet Archive with free account.
  Occupation: Freighter, cook, domestic worker, star route mail carrier

• https://blackhistoryproject2021.wordpress.com/about/

• https://postalmuseum.si.edu/stagecoach-mary-fields

• Blakemore, Erin. “Meet Stagecoach Mary, the Daring Black Pioneer Who Protected Wild West Stagecoaches.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 14 September 2017, (history.com/news/meet-stagecoach-mary-the-daring-black-pioneer-who-protected-wild-west-stagecoaches).

• Cowen, Nadia. “`Stagecoach' Mary Fields (1832-1914).” Chicagotribune.com, 26 August 2018, (chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-03-03-0403030068-story.html).

• “Finding Mary Fields: Race, Gender, and the Construction of Memory.” Portraits of Women in the American West, by Dee Garceau-Hagen, Taylor and Francis, 2013, pp. 121–148.

• Hardaway, Rodger D. “AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER.” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 60, no. 1, Jan. 1997, pp. 11–12., jstor.org/stable/24766796.

• "Mary Fields." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1 Feb. 2018. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Mary-Fields/630727. Accessed 18 February 2020.

• Pickett, Mary. “'Stagecoach Mary' Cuts Colorful Swath.” The Billings Gazette, 8 February 2009 (billingsgazette.com/news/features/magazine/stagecoach-mary-cuts-colorful-swath/article_c3a25388-8991-5cf4-a505-01374274e6ad.html).

• Reindl, JC. “'Stagecoach Mary' Broke Barriers of Race, Gender.” Toledo Blade, 8 February 2010 (toledoblade.com/local/2010/02/08/Stagecoach-Mary-broke-barriers-of-race-gender.html).

• Shiloh, Tamara. "Rough and Tough, Stagecoach Mary Got the Mail Delivered in Rugged Montana." Oakland Post, Oct, 2019, pp. 2. ProQuest, search.proquest.com/docview/2313024407?accountid=46638.

• “Star route.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, merriam-webster.com/dictionary/star%20route. Accessed 18 February 2020.