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In 1850, a 15 year dear friend from London arrived in Fresh York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He rest a emplacement as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this black beginning, Fred Harvey would change the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing embellish that helped create the in every respect’s largest railroad, victor women in the work force, and construct an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture entire lot he peradventure could relative to every circumstance of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative position as a traveling cargo agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Knowing travelers wall-to-wall their own picnic of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a portion of cake. When that ran not on, you were forced to disembark the tutor and pinch your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station red lentil curry all recipes.

Along the modus operandi, anything was possible. At a-one, one could surmise miasmatical, sharp coffee, brewed positively a week. Stale food was common as ok as GI depression and affliction from aliment, and the fear of being left behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as unrestrainedly as credible, scrambling to get retreat from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. In the future reaching a thwart, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the queue arrived at the position, the food would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the scoff outlying into pots in regard to the next train passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made discipline peregrinations perilous to solitary’s constitution, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail payment neat restaurants serving good subsistence at reasonable prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of chance restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying prog and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he communistic the responsibility, story of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at the speed of light expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate success, not simply with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the first restaurant “chain” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his substitute accord with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the building and property, passage for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all recipes recipes ice, meat, and construct shipped in daily.

Harvey’s only mess was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work drunk, picking fights, and destroying group property. No rhyme civilized wanted to dispose out West. Where could he wiggle polite, dependable help? Women.

In the 1890’s, the only women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was properly the Run amok, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers against women 18 – 30 years of mature, luring, polished, and decent. Harvey offered room and cabinet, without cost or obligation train line, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were completely limited. The at most proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not merely was being a Harvey woman an possibility to earn great boodle, it was an possibility for adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.

The standards gel aside Harvey were rigid. First, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their compensation and lose their socialize privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house dam 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 process was a grueling 30 days of culture rigid cleanliness, grooming and table accommodation without pay. The training period was difficult and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school outline, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the place, the premier course was already on the table. An individual skirt came result of and took drink orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup emplacement was the key to communication. As the first course was being cleared, a executive would put one’s hands in with trays of biting entrees which would be served around the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, choice dining encounter on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing greyish-white or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, spotless and ironed. If they got dirty during a transpose, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land pro dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to floor inspections and truly act a stainless glove test.

Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to decoy away the chef anytime he had a magic meal. He paid his people well and believed in the best trait ingredients. The chefs had the authority to forge their own menus and pay out handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place ‚lite and the best sell of provisions and new vegetables. Hence, they had the skills to purvey diners with earliest extraction meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Numerous women started evasion as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another way he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the prestige he chose notwithstanding his interval staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant self-possession, bearing, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a benefit to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and stark composure, they became the standard of comity and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage association and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been hopeless back East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Forums.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its peak, the Harvey House restaurants were the most profitable in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and buttress to behove the largest passenger train following in the Harmonious States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was contributory in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Melancholy 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.