P a g e 3 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r After 10 miles, Colonel Broadwater says, his horse began to tire. He looked behind him to see a cloud of dust about three miles away that was being raised by Ives and Cooper in hot pursuit. With a tired horse and 30 pounds of gold strapped to his waist he was under a terrible handicap. But he pounded onward. He reached Contway’s doorway with Ives and Cooper only 50 yards behind him. Ives pretended to Contway that he and Broadwater were having a race. Broadwater fell in with the pretense. Ives and Cooper decided to stop all night at Contway’s. Broadwater was forced by circumstances to do likewise. Broadwater took advantage of an opportunity to tell Contway the facts and to purchase one of the Frenchman's fleet horses privately. Under the arrangement the Frenchman was to saddle the horse –one of his fleetest—and Contway owned some fine horses, and bring it to the door on pretense that he, himself, was going to hunt for cattle. Broadwater was to notice the horse, admire it and mount it “to see how it behaved" with an eye to a possible purchase. The program was carried out with Ives and Cooper looking idly on. Their mounts were staked out on the prairie. When Broadwater found himself in the saddle he exclaimed: “I’ll keep him and pay you for him later, Contway. I must be on my way." “I have witnesses that you promised to pay.” the Frenchman said, after pretending to make an attempt to dissuade Broadwater from leaving until “the horse is paid for.” Ives and Cooper tried to persuade him to wait for them. "It isn't fair to ride off and leave us." they urged. But Broadwater said he had “business in Deer Lodge” and dashed away. He rode 20 miles without stopping—from the Frenchman’s ranch to Deer Lodge. He found on checking up that he had ridden 107 miles in 18 hours including stops—from Bannack to Deer Lodge. -Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Mary Fields. Also known as "Stagecoach Mary" or "Black Mary", Mary Fields was born into slavery in 1832 in Tennessee. Gaining her freedom after the Civil war, she worked as a chambermaid on the steamboat Robert E. Lee. In the 1870's, Mary began working at the Ursuline Convent in Toledo, Ohio with Mother Mary Amadeus as acting superior. Amadeus traveled to Montana to establish St. Peter's Mission west of what would become Cascade. When Amadeus fell ill, Mary hurried to Montana to nurse her back to health. Even after Amadeus was well again, Mary stayed on to work at the convent. She handled the stage, hauled and protected goods, washed clothes and tended to the chickens. But, because of her routine habits of drinking, swearing, fighting and gunplay, the bishop asked Mary to leave the convent in 1894. In 1895, Mary secured a contract to deliver mail between the convent and Cascade, a fifteen mile journey. Because of her reliability and speed, she earned the nickname "Stagecoach Mary". At 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, Mary was known as one of the toughest women in Montana history. She passed away in Great Falls, Montana in 1914. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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