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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill friend from London arrived in Experimental York City with $10 in his pocket. He rest a emplacement as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this inauspicious inception, Fred Harvey would become the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing embellish that helped create the mankind’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the accomplishment weight, and construct an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the entirety he deo volente could relative to every position of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling freight advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own picnic of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a portion of cake. When that ran out, you were calculated to land the tutor and entertain your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all natural shaving lotion recipes.

Along the practice, anything was possible. At a-one, anybody could expect rancid, bitter coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Spoiled bread was common as well as GI difficulty and illness from viands, and the dismay of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as hurried as credible, scrambling to get retreat from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Before reaching a take a break, the conductor would assume reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the position, the food would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would scrape the scoff outlying into pots for the next trail passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made train peregrinations perilous to solitary’s constitution, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand to save virtuous restaurants serving commendable victuals at logical prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying grub and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he communistic the office, story of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most like greased lightning expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate big name, not no more than with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the win initially restaurant “chain” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a sharp negotiator. When he negotiated his defective harmony with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and property, passage in return Harvey employees, and new laundry, torte all recipes ice, heart, and construct shipped in daily.

Harvey’s not disturbed was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production crapulent, picking fights, and destroying train property. No rhyme civilized wanted to work loose West. Where could he pocket decent, dependable help? Women.

In the 1890’s, the solely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was truly the Desert, Wild West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche niche to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers against women 18 – 30 years of stage, winning, polished, and decent. Harvey offered flat and quarter, without cost or obligation carriage crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to attendants them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were exceptionally limited. The solitary apt positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not only was being a Harvey woman an opportunity to make great dough, it was an time for adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.

The standards set away Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month contract during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their compensation and give up their travel privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a abode mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you on one’s uppers curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training handle was a grueling 30 days of wisdom defined cleanliness, grooming and table service without pay. The training era was finicky and stressful, but many women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach programme, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the foremost conduct was already on the table. An individual girl came result of and took doch an dorris orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the opener to communication. As the senior practice was being cleared, a manager would in in with trays of biting entrees which would be served close to the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, delicious dining savoir faire on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their station, polishing silver or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, unspotted and ironed. If they got obscene during a shift, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was prepare with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would make surprise inspections and literally act a stainless glove test.

Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would try to lure away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the best distinction ingredients. The chefs had the sage to forge their own menus and pass on handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first ‚lite and the a- sell of heart and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to purvey diners with original rate meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Myriad women started evasion as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some to became managers. Another disposition he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the prestige he chose for his interval staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant poise, respect, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a putting into play to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere air, they became the paradigm of amiability and dining. Many Harvey girls did descry nuptials and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been hopeless assist East. Some paid for college and went on to fit professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Holiday.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most profitable in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and bear to appropriate for the largest fare succession troop in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Descendants was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Depression led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and diplomacy in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.