"Stagecoash Mary Fields' - Pioneer

Birthplace: TN  (1832-1914)

Mary Fields was born a slave in the state of Tennessee.  When she was old enough she ran away to Toledo Ohio where a Chatolic family took her in.

Mary traveled to Montana with one of the family member who was a num to set up a Native American Girl's school. She took on the job of driving the supply wagon back and forth between the mission and Cascade, Montana.   

Because of the extreme cold, Mary dreassed like a man in trousers, boots and heavy jackets.  The clothes along with her size (six feet tall and around 20 lbs) gave her a manly look. 

Fields drove for the mission school for 10 years. When she left the mission she was hired by the United States government to drive the mail route.  She carried the mail for eight years through all types of weather and never missed a day.  She became known as "Stagecoach Mary".

At the age of 77, Fields retired from mail-carring and opened a laundry business.  Befoe her death  the famous cowboy artist Charlie Russell sketched a portrait of her, that now hands in the Stockman;s Bank in Cascade montana, to this day.