Legends of the Old West - WOMEN OF THE WEST Ep. 1 | Stagecoach Mary: “The Trailblazer”

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Mary Fields was a former slave who became the caretaker of a convent in Ohio before rushing west to help save the life of her closest friend. In Montana, she became a legendary stagecoach driver for the U.S. postal service and a towering figure in the town of Cascade. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join To advertise on this podcast, please email: [e-mail] For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Join for free at Rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. Montana, Big Sky Country, is still one of the most unspoiled and untamed places in America. Before it was granted statehood in 1889, what was then called Montana Territory was the ultimate frontier, about as wild as the West could get. Even though the men and women who settled there were as tough as they came, only the strongest or the luckiest survived. For most, whatever dangers lurked in the territory were worth the risk. Those who survived and thrived experienced a kind of freedom they might never have found anywhere else. One character of the Old West who wholeheartedly embraced the freedom that Montana Territory offered had, for many years, never known a day of freedom.

But out of that hardship, and against all odds, a quintessentially American legend was born. Her name was Mary Fields, a six-foot-tall, 200-pound, cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking, bar-brawling former slave who became known throughout Montana and eventually the entire West as Stagecoach Mary. She was revered by many and feared by some. After emancipation, Mary worked as a servant in various capacities for nearly 20 years. It was a better life than the one she had previously known, but one that still didn't afford her much freedom. It wasn't until Mary went to Montana Territory that she finally experienced real freedom. At that point, she was in her 50s, and once she found it, she vowed she would never lose it again.

and once she found it, she vowed she would never lose it again. Native Americans in the area called her White Crow because they said she was a black woman who acted like a white woman. The theory is that they thought she refused to be put in her place by people who thought they were better, and if that's what they meant, they were right on the money. Mary didn't tolerate nonsense from anybody, no matter their gender, their color, or their station in life. Actor Gary Cooper, a Montana native, remembered meeting stagecoach Mary when he was a boy while visiting relatives in Cascade. She made quite an impression. In 1959, when Cooper was a well-established movie star, he wrote an article about Mary for Esquire magazine. In it, he said this, She was one of the freest souls to ever draw breath.

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Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash Realm, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash R-E-A-L-M now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. And this season, we're telling four stories of some of the legendary women of the West. This is Episode 1, Stagecoach Mary, the Trailblazer Mary Fields grew up on a plantation in Hickman County, Tennessee, and spent the first 35 years of her life as a slave in the cotton fields. It's believed she was given the last name Fields for that reason.

When the Civil War ended and Mary was emancipated, she left Tennessee and found work as a chambermaid on a Mississippi riverboat called the Robert E. Lee. Details of Mary's life during that time are fuzzy, and there doesn't seem to be any consensus as to how the events leading up to her next job unfolded. But most believe that while Mary was working on the steamboat, she struck up a rapport with an important passenger, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona Territory named Edmund Dunn. Dunn now resided in St. Augustine, Florida,

and he was impressed with Mary's work ethic, her honesty, and her larger-than-life personality and her ability to read and write, which was uncommon for a former slave. Dunn convinced her to come to Florida and work for his family as a nanny to their five children. Mary loved children, and the job was certainly a step up from being a chambermaid, so she accepted the position. But sadly, not long after she went to work for the family, Judge Dunn's wife Josephine passed away. The judge, who was a devout Catholic and mourning the death of his wife, decided his sister Sarah was better equipped to look after his children than he was. Sarah had been living as an Ursuline nun in a convent in Toledo, Ohio for many years, and the judge asked Mary to deliver the children to their Aunt Sarah. By then, Sister Sarah had become the convent's mother superior and was called Mother Amadeus.

After Mary arrived with the children, Mother Amadeus recalled asking Mary if she would like to rest after her long journey. Mary thanked her, but said that what she really wanted was a drink and a cigar. Mother Amadeus politely informed her that neither was available at the convent. Despite Mary's love of outlawed spirits and smokes, Mother Amadeus liked her and asked her to stay on with the children and work at the convent. She did, however, make it clear that Mary would have to do her drinking and cigar smoking elsewhere. Mary agreed to stay and somewhat begrudgingly agreed to Mother Amadeus' rules. Mary and Mother Amadeus formed an unlikely but deep friendship, and for the next 15 years, Mary lived and worked at the convent. She was given room and board and paid

$50 a year, a wage she was not shy about letting the nuns know was too low. Her low wage not withstanding, Mary took pride in her work, and she worked hard to keep the convent running smoothly. She worked in the kitchen, did the laundry, maintained the vegetable garden, and kept the convent grounds well manicured. But she ran a very tight ship. This led one nun to famously say, God help anyone who walked on the lawn after Mary had cut it. In 1884, the bishop in Toledo sent Mother Amadeus to St. Peter's Mission, just west of Cascade, Montana, where she was directed to open a school for Native American

girls. Mother Amadeus invited Mary to come, but Mary declined. She was settled at the convent, and she was getting on in years, and Montana must have seemed like it was at the end of the earth. So Mary and her friend shared a sad farewell, and Mary stayed in Toledo, not knowing if she would ever see Mother Amadeus again. The following year, 1885, word reached Mary that Mother Amadeus was gravely ill with pneumonia. Without hesitation, Mary packed up her belongings and headed west, traveling 1,600 miles alone to Cascade, Montana. West, traveling 1,600 miles alone to Cascade, Montana. She became the first African-American woman to ever set foot in the small frontier town. She immediately started nursing her sick friend back to health with her own tried-and-true remedies, although things weren't looking good. But after being at death's door for several weeks, the prayers of the nuns at St. Peter's Mission were finally answered.

Mother Amadeus made a full recovery thanks to Mary Fields. At Mother Amadeus' invitation, and because she had taken a liking to Montana, Mary accepted an offer to stay on and work at St. Peter's Mission. at St. Peter's Mission. In the eight years that followed, Mary, who lived on the church grounds, became instrumental in the construction of a school, a church, assorted outbuildings, and a permanent convent where the nuns would live. Mary had been appointed the forewoman for all construction projects at the mission by Mother Amadeus, who knew she was the person best suited to get the job done. And she did. Mary outworked and outpaced the men who had been hired to help with the construction, carrying loads of lumber, stones, and other building supplies on her back,

while most of the men resorted to the wheelbarrows. And when she wasn't building, Mary was busy minding the grounds, raising chickens, growing vegetables, cooking, cleaning, and doing whatever else needed to be done. Thanks to years of hard work, dedication, and sheer tenacity, construction of the buildings was finally completed, and St. Peter's mission thrived. Mary earned a reputation as tough and brash, but she was known to be gentle and kind with the Native American girls at the school. The girls must have seen Mary as a welcome relief from the strict discipline imposed by the nuns. Mary was devoted not only to Mother Amadeus, but to the children and her work at the mission.

And although she survived more than her share of sadness and strife, she seemed to have finally found some well-deserved contentment and happiness in St. Peter's. But not everyone was as happy to have Mary at the mission as Mary was to be there. In the space of a single day, it all changed. Mary had worked for the nuns at St. Peter's Mission for eight years. She was 60 years old, and as far as she was concerned, St. Peter's was where she would spend the rest of her life. But everything changed in a matter of a day. During another construction project, Mary had a run-in with the convent's janitor,

who apparently took exception to being given orders by a woman, and a black woman at that. He challenged her authority. Mary then took exception to having her authority challenged by the janitor. Some believe the argument came about when the janitor learned that Mary was making more money than he was. Whatever provoked it, what began as a heated argument escalated to the point where Mary and the janitor pulled guns on each other. It looked like there was

going to be a shootout on the grounds of the mission. One version of the story said the janitor actually slapped Mary in the face, and she fired a warning shot that sent him running. slapped Mary in the face, and she fired a warning shot that sent him running. Another version has Mary shooting the man in the butt, although that sounds unlikely. Whatever really happened, the two called a truce before any serious damage was done. Word of the incident made its way back to the bishop in Great Falls, who apparently refused to take into consideration the fact that Mary had been provoked, whether she fired the shot or not. By now, the bishop had already received complaints from a few nuns who weren't happy by Mary's temperament in general, and neither was he. Her use of colorful language had been an ongoing problem, and Mary was known to have a volatile

temper which did rear its head from time to time. A temperament like a grizzly, some said. But it was the ways that Mary spent her free time outside the mission that the nuns and the bishop disproved of the most, and they let her know it. Mary, in turn, made it clear that her days of being told what to do by anybody were long over. She was going to live her life exactly how she wanted, whether the nuns or the bishop approved or not. She was a free woman, and her free time was her own. Even Mary's closest friend and supporter, Mother Amadeus,

couldn't convince Mary to change her ways and conform to the wishes of the bishop. When Mary wasn't working at the mission, she liked to hang out in a local saloon with cowboys and ranchers and other hardworking men. When she first started frequenting the saloon, the men didn't know what to make of the six-foot-tall black woman who often wore men's clothes, drank whiskey, smoked cigars, and could make a cowboy blush with her cursing. Mary also made it clear to any man who challenged her for being in the saloon that she was not to be toyed with. She

carried a six-shooter, which she knew how to use very well, and she was not afraid to punch anybody who crossed her. Once Mary was established as a regular, men would sometimes come into the saloon, having heard about her reputation, and bet her $5 and a shot of whiskey that she couldn't knock them out with one punch. She never lost a bet. In fact, it was said that Mary had broken more noses than anyone in the state of Montana. The men in the saloon soon grew fond of the woman they had nicknamed Black Mary and considered her not only a drinking buddy, but a friend. They also knew it was a lot safer to be Mary's friend than her enemy. Plenty of people in Cascade grew to like and admire Mary, but Bishop Brondell was not one of them. The incident with the janitor was the final straw.

He directed Mother Amadeus to fire Mary and evict her from the mission. Mother Amadeus did everything she could to convince the bishop to give Mary another chance, but he refused, so she had no choice but to fire her longtime friend, the friend who had saved her life. Mary was devastated. The mission had been her home for nearly 10 years. She was 60 years old, jobless, and homeless. But Mary Fields was not going to surrender in defeat. She had made it this far in life through grit and determination,

and she wasn't about to give up now, no matter how difficult things got for her. how difficult things got for her. After Mary was fired from St. Peter's, she could have given up, left Montana, and headed back east to find work. But Montana was her home now, and she was determined to stay. She moved from the mission into Cascade proper, and then she had to figure out how to make a living. Mary was known to be a good cook, and she now had lots of supporters in the community, so her friends pooled enough money for her to open a small restaurant in town. Things were going well, but not for long. Despite her gruff exterior, Mary had a generous spirit, and if people came to her restaurant who were hungry but didn't have

enough money to pay for a meal, Mary fed them anyway. Pretty soon, there was more food going out than there was money coming in, and although her generosity endeared her even more to the people of Cascade, her charity was bad for business. Less than a year later, Mary was forced to close the restaurant. Mary began to take in laundry and do some sewing, and because she had a special fondness for children, she did some babysitting too. But with what she was earning, she was still barely able to scrape by. Mother Amadeus and her friends around town offered to help, but Mary politely refused. She cherished her independence, and she was determined to find a way to get by on her own. Then one day, Mary saw an opportunity. In those days, it was common for the U.S. Postal Service to contract independent operators to service remote mail routes that postal carriers couldn't

reach. The routes were called star routes. Contracts for star routes were awarded to the lowest bidder. Bidders could then either drive the route themselves or hire a driver. Naturally, the vast majority of drivers were men, but Mary didn't see any reason why she couldn't do the job. So, she set about trying to persuade the man who had been awarded several star routes, including one from Cascade to St. Peter's Mission, to hire her as his driver. It took some convincing, but he finally relented and gave her the opportunity to prove herself. He told her there were several candidates, but he was going to give the job to prove herself. He told her there were several candidates, but he was going to give the job to whoever could harness

and hitch a team of six horses to a stagecoach the fastest. Mary completed the task faster than any of the men, most of whom were half her age. So, in 1895, Mary became just the second woman and the first African-American woman, to carry the mail for the U.S. Postal Service. And it wasn't long before Mary Fields became Stagecoach Mary. Driving a stagecoach was a dangerous business, regardless of whether you were transporting passengers or delivering the mail. Just operating the stagecoach was dangerous.

or delivering the mail. Just operating the stagecoach was dangerous. The coach Mary drove was called a Concorde. It was designed to carry nine passengers or a full load of mail and other supplies. The stagecoach weighed well over a ton even when it was empty, so maneuvering a coach that size, fully loaded,

pulled by a team of six horses, required confidence, skill, and courage. Star routes were particularly dangerous because they were remote, with roads that were more like paths and terrain that was mountainous and rough. And in Montana, the weather could be brutal. could be brutal. And of course, the most serious man-made threats to Mary or any stagecoach driver were robbers, or road agents as they were sometimes called. As far as the post office was concerned, a driver should be prepared to put his or her life on the line to protect the male. But robbers didn't frighten Mary. She was armed to the hilt. She had a Winchester rifle at her side and a.38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver hidden under her coat. Mary was known as a quick draw

and a good shot. She once said she could cut a man in half at close range with her pistol, but thanks to her well-earned reputation as somebody you didn't want to cross, highwaymen steered clear of stagecoach Mary. She never did have to cut a man in half, and her most harrowing experience on the trail didn't come courtesy of bandits, difficult roads, or tough weather. It came from a pack of wolves. In the severe Montana winters, Mary and her team braved blizzards and sub-zero temperatures. If the snow was too deep to make deliveries with her stagecoach, Mary put on snowshoes, strapped the mail to her back, and trekked through the wilderness to make her rounds.

Legend has it she once walked 34 miles round trip through the snow to deliver the mail. In the spring, after the winter thaw, the rivers were swollen and perilous to cross. In the summer, Mary and her team faced sweltering heat. She kept going no matter what the weather threw at her. But the most dangerous test Mary faced was when her team was attacked by a pack of hungry wolves. She had to keep a constant eye out for grizzly bears and mountain lions, too. But it was the wolves that found her on a trip from Cascade to Helena. On the road, Mary heard wolves howling in the distance.

It wasn't an uncommon sound in the wilds of Montana, but she realized the howling was getting louder. She couldn't tell if she was getting closer to the wolves or if the wolves were getting closer to her, but she soon had her answer. When Mary and her stagecoach came barreling around a bend, a pack of ferocious-looking wolves was lying in wait and poised to attack her team of horses. The horses were spooked and then fully panicked and bolted. The coach flipped over onto its side and threw Mary to the ground. The horses kept running and dragging the coach until it finally got stuck. Shaken but mostly uninjured, Mary immediately took cover behind the coach.

She grabbed her rifle, her pistol, and a pocket full of bullets. She was determined to protect her team from being slaughtered. For the next several hours, and then all through the night, with only a kerosene lantern for light, she fought them off. She picked off one wolf at a time with her Winchester and then her pistol. When dawn came, Mary's team was safe, she was safe, the male was safe, and the ground around them was littered with dead wolves. Mary's reputation for being tough as nails was already well established,

but when word got around that she single-handedly fought off a pack of wolves, she was elevated to the status of a living legend. By the time Mary turned 70, she had endured eight years of arduous back-breaking work and driven thousands of miles in her stagecoach through some of the roughest terrain in the West, often under the most brutal weather conditions. And although her mind and spirit were as strong as ever, her under the most brutal weather conditions. And although her mind and spirit were as strong as ever, her body was telling her something else. So, after delivering thousands of letters to folks all over Central and Southwest Montana, and never missing a day of work, she decided it was time to retire. But stagecoach Mary wasn't one to languish in retirement.

retire. But stagecoach Mary wasn't one to languish in retirement, and she couldn't spend all of her time in a saloon, so she opened up a laundry service in her home. Business was good, and she enjoyed being able to talk with her customers and keep up with the goings-on around town. But of course, when you're in a business that deals with customers, you're eventually going to come in contact with a surly no-account who needs to learn a lesson in manners. A customer, who must have been new in town and unaware that crossing Mary was like poking a bear with a stick, made the mistake of getting belligerent with her. The man told Mary he had ordered extra starch in his cuffs and collar, and because he didn't get what he asked for, he refused to pay his bill. So at the age of 72, Mary wound up and laid him out flat on the ground with one punch. The man's indiscretion cost him a tooth instead of his laundry bill. It's said that

Mary leaned over him and told him that punching him in the face was worth a lot more than what he owed for his shirt. Mary's life continued to be full of challenges. As her laundry business was going strong, a fire destroyed her home. But the town of Cascade once again rallied to her aid. But the town of Cascade once again rallied to her aid. Mary was given a place to stay, food, clothes, shoes, blankets, cooking supplies, virtually everything she needed to get her life back on track.

And she didn't have to pay for her whiskey at the saloon for a while either. Drinks were on her friends or on the house. And the generosity didn't stop there. Just as they had done when she lost her job at the mission 10 years before, her friends and acquaintances in Cascade pooled their money, and this time, they built Mary a new house. Over the course of her lifetime, she'd gone from a slave in Tennessee, to the caretaker of a mission in Ohio, to the caretaker of a mission in Montana, to a fearless stagecoach driver for the U.S. Postal Service. She endeared herself to the people of Cascade and became a local hero and had a few more highlights before she passed on.

In 1907, when the state of Montana passed a law forbidding women from entering any drinking establishment, Mary, who was then 75 years old and still a regular at her favorite saloon, was given a special exemption by Cascades' mayor. She was allowed to drink in any saloon she liked. Mary became an enthusiastic fan of Cascades' local baseball team. She became such a fixture at the team's home games, the players invited her to travel with them to away games as their guest of honor. She also started cleaning and fixing uniforms and took care of the equipment. And not

surprisingly, she was the most vocal supporter of her team and cheered loudly from the stands. most vocal supporter of her team and cheered loudly from the stands. If she thought an umpire made a bad call against her boys, she was said to have shouted strings of expletives that made mothers cover their children's ears. But on the flip side, Mary also brought bouquets of flowers from her own garden to give to the players who hit home runs. Off the diamond, Mary started a unique and fun tradition. Like many former slaves, she didn't know the exact date of her birth, so she celebrated her birthday twice a year on dates of her choosing, and the town celebrated right along with her. The tradition continued until 1914. On December 5th, 1914, around the age of 82, stagecoach Mary passed away, leaving an entire community in mourning.

On the day of her funeral, businesses and schools closed. Mary's obituary was printed on the front page of both of Cascades' newspapers, and her funeral was the largest the town had ever seen. Mary Fields was laid to rest in the hillside cemetery outside Cascade. Her grave was marked with a simple wooden cross, but she was a true legend of the American West. Next time on Legends of the Old West, it's the story of Olive Oatman, a young woman who was kidnapped by the Apache and survived years of captivity. She became famous as the Girl with the Blue Tattoo, and her photos are some of the most well-known of the era.

That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials and exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This episode was researched and written by Michael Byrne. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening.

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