Stagecoach Mary Packed A Revolver, Smoked Cigars, & Delivered Mail

 

Mary Fields, AKA Stagecoach Mary fits right into our series of interesting folks from history because she was larger than life and right out there. She never fit the picture of a proper19th century woman. Read on to find out why.

Huge Personality

Mary Fields stood over six feet and weighed two hundred pounds. She loved hard liquor, packed heavy firearms, and suffered no fools. My kind of woman!

Born into slavery, she ended up in Montana later in life. She worked at a convent, but her temper got her fired.

According to the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, the woman who “wore men’s clothing” and “smoked cigars” got into a shootout with a male janitor who didn’t like her taking charge.

The school let her go after that incident.

The Postal Service

The firing turned out to be a blessing. In 1895, at around sixty years old, Fields signed on with the United States Postal Service.

The National African American Gun Association reports that she won the mail contract because she was “the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses.”

She became one of the first Black women to carry mail for the government.

Keeping The Guns Handy

The work demanded real guts. Fields carried a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver under her apron and kept a Winchester rifle close by.

Legend says Stagecoach Mary could shoot a fly off a horse’s ear. That sounds like a lousy way to treat a horse, but it proved her aim was deadly.

Another legend says that one night a pack of wolves attacked her stagecoach and flipped the wagon over. Fields didn’t lose her nerve and run screaming for help.

Instead, she used the wrecked coach for cover and kept the wolves at bay until dawn.

When she ran out of shotgun shells, she pulled her handgun and kept firing. She survived the night and got the mail through.

The Moniker ‘Stagecoach Mary’

Her reliability earned her the nickname Stagecoach Mary. Democracy and Me points out that she spent eight years braving “blizzards, bandits, and wolves” along her route.

When the snow got too deep for the horses, she strapped on snowshoes and carried the mail sacks on her back.

The Retirement Years

After she retired, the town of Cascade, Montana, practically bowed to her.

Montana law banned women from saloons, but the town leaders made a special exception just for Mary Fields.

She sashayed into the local bar whenever she pleased, drank whiskey with the men, and smoked her cigars.

And probably entertained them with stories of survival, adventure, and the occasional encounter with someone foolish enough to underestimate her.

The Passing Of Mary

She lived by her own rules until her death in 1914. Stagecoach Mary proved the Wild West wasn’t just for outlaws and gunslingers.

Sometimes the toughest person on the trail was a sixty-year-old grandma hauling the mail.

And honestly, folks wouldn’t have wanted to get in her way.

What are your thoughts about Stagecoach Mary? Let us know in the comments below, and come back here often for all your interesting news and updates.