BLAZE Magazine Special Edition 2006-2016 | Page 20

Travel & Trails
Ex-slave Mary Fields felt
at home in Montana,
whether working in a
convent or managing a
mail route.
S TAGECOACH
M ARY
Courtsey of http://blackcowboys.com/black-cowboys/mary-fields
A
Black gun-totin’ female in
the American wild west. She
was six feet tall; heavy; tough;
short-tempered; two-fisted;
powerful; and packed a pair of six-
shooters and an eight or ten-gauge
shotgun. A legend in her own time, she
was also known as Stagecoach Mary.
Mary Fields was born as a slave in
Tennessee during the administration
of Andrew Jackson -- a feisty sort with
whom she shared driving ambition,
audacity, and a penchant for physical
altercation on a regular basis. She
smoked rather bad homemade cigars.
Well after the Civil War loosened things
up, as a free woman in 1884, having
made her way to Cascade County
(west central Montana) in search of
improved sustenance and adventure,
she took a job with the Ursuline nuns
at their mission in the city of Cascade --
such as it was. (Cascade that is, not the
job, although it was not much to speak
of either.) Called St. Peter Mission,
the nuns’ simple frontier facility was
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| SPECIAL EDITION 2006-2016
relatively well funded, if remote,
and the nuns did a thriving business
converting heathen savages, and other
disgusting customers, to the true path
of salvation -- although not salvation
from the white men.
Anyway, Mary was hired to do ‘heavy
work’ and to haul freight and supplies
to keep the nuns’ operation functional
and well fed. She chopped wood, did
stone work and rough carpentry, dug
certain necessary holes, and when
reserves were low she did one of her
customary supply runs to the train stop,
or even to Great Falls, or the city of
Helena when special needs arose.
On such a night run (it wasn’t all
that far, but it was cooler at night),
Mary’s wagon was attacked by wolves
(maybe they wanted some of the dried
beans or nun suits on board). The
terrified horses bolted uncontrollably
and overturned the wagon, thereby
unceremoniously dumping Mary and
all her supplies onto the dark prairie.
I am Mary Fields.
People call me “Black Mary.”
People call me “Stagecoach Mary.”
I live in Cascade, Tennessee.
I am six feet tall.
I weigh over two hundred pounds.
A woman of the 19th Century,
I do bold and exciting things.
I wear pants.
I smoke a big black cigar.
I drink whiskey.
I carry a pistol.
I love adventure.
I travel the country, driving a stagecoach,
delivering the mail to distant towns.
Strong, I fight through rainstorms.
Tough, I fight through snowstorms.
I risk hurricanes and tornadoes.
I am independent.
No body tells me what to do.
No body tells me where to go.
When I’m not delivering mail, I like to build buildings.
I like to smoke and drink in bars with the men.
I like to be rough.
I like to be rowdy.
I also like to be loving.
I like to be caring.
I like to baby sit.
I like to plant flowers and tend my garden.
I like to give away corsages and bouquets.
I like being me, Mary Fields.
Accept No Limits | outdoorwomenunlimited.org