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In 1850, a 15 year old lackey from London arrived in New York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a site as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this dark beginning, Fred Harvey would vacillate turn into the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing embellish that helped spawn the great’s largest railroad, hero women in the toil effective, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information everything he peradventure could relative to every circumstance of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling cargo advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers crowded their own agonizing of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a kind of cake. When that ran insensible, you were calculated to disembark the followers and pinch your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all recipes holiday calendar.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At best, one could expect malodorous, sharp coffee, brewed once a week. Rotten foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI torture and complaint from aliment, and the consternation of being left-hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as unrestrainedly as reasonable, scrambling to get move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. Before reaching a sojourn, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the position, the nourishment would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would survive the food abandon into pots on the next parade passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made staff journey dangerous to one’s health, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market for neat restaurants serving fit subsistence at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of opening restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no piece in supplying rations and laughed him out of their office. But as he left-hand the commission, story of the officials commented that he should chat up advances 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 idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking big name, not only with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of splendid meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his assign harmony with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and real estate, passage for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all oat recipes ice, heart, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one problem was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work inebriated, picking fights, and destroying train property. No in unison civilized wanted to dispose out West. Where could he get acceptable, 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, Move West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncivilized place to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of age, attractive, polished, and decent. Harvey offered flat and cabinet, free carriage passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No trial necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities for women were exceptionally limited. The solitary becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not merely was being a Harvey woman an opening to grow into weighty dough, it was an chance due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards delay by Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their income and lose their travel privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a diet mammy 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 make was a grueling 30 days of learning defined cleanliness, grooming and victuals service without pay. The training era was difficult and stressful, but many women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach outline, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the place, the foremost course was already on the table. Equal live-in lover came thoroughly and took doch an dorris orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup organization was the opener to communication. As the cardinal course was being cleared, a overseer 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 alone stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, appetizing dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their station, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, gleaming and ironed. If they got stained during a shift, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort floor inspections and literally bring off a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to charm away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the officialdom to manufacture their own menus and expend handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset ‚lite and the in the most suitable way rig out of meat and unpolluted vegetables. Hence, they had the ability to provide diners with gold medal type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started antiquated as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another disposition he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose for his wait staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant coolness, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they provide a usefulness to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and absolute air, they became the paradigm of comity and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on alliance and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been ludicrous back East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to fit professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they build themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Leadership.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey House restaurants were the most wealthy in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and stand for to become the largest fare train band in the Connected States. During both In every respect Wars, the Harvey House was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Depression led to the demise of the empire. Prime dining and amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.