"Stagecoach" Mary Fields, America's first Black female postal worker, was known for her fearless delivery of mail across hundreds of miles in the dangerous Wild West.

Born a slave in the 1830s in the South, Fields found work with the help of a nun named Mother Amadeus after the Civil War. Initially, she worked in an Ohio convent, then moved to St. Peter’s Convent in Montana.

Despite working among nuns, Fields was far from nun-like. She was a regular visitor to saloons, smoked cigars, got into brawls, and wasn't shy to use her guns. After an altercation with a janitor at St. Peter’s, she was set up by Mother Amadeus with a job at the U.S. Postal Service in 1895.

Fields, the first Black woman and only the second woman overall to hold a mail route in the U.S., demonstrated great resilience and courage. In her 60s, she dutifully protected her mail with a rifle and a revolver, unfazed by danger.

She often traveled 300 miles a week to cover her route. In snow, she would strap on her snowshoes and carry the mail in a sack across her shoulders, ensuring it reached its destination.

Her commitment to her job and strong character made her a local hero in Cascade, Montana. She was the only woman allowed to drink at the local bar who wasn't a sex worker, ate for free at the Cascade Hotel, and the townspeople built her a new home when hers burned down.

After eight years of mail delivery, she started a laundry business. Upon her death in 1914, the Cascade community held one of the largest funerals the town had ever witnessed in her honor.