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In 1850, a 15 year dear lackey from London arrived in Fresh York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He found a position as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this dark inception, Fred Harvey would become the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing tool that helped spawn the mankind’s largest railroad, hero women in the animate effective, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition the whole shooting match he peradventure could take every aspect of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative position as a traveling cargo advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and anciently 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Experienced travelers packed their own breeze of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a piece of cake. When that ran insensible, you were phony to step off the procession and entertain your chances on whatever was handy at the station all cabbage soup recipes.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At a-one, a given could surmise gamy, bitter coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Stale rations was average as well as GI depression and illness from aliment, and the dismay of being left behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as sybaritic as credible, scrambling to get endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. Ahead of reaching a stop, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the position, the commons would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would muster the victuals invest in into pots on the next parade passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made discipline voyage perilous to solitary’s constitution, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base to save neat restaurants serving ethical food at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of chink restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying food and laughed him out of their office. But as he left the office, a specific 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 impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest good fortune, not at best with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the win initially restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous expansion of the West, Santa Fe became the original passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his assign accord with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and quiddity, passage repayment for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all natural chocolate chip cookie recipes ice, meat, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only problem was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task inebriated, picking fights, and destroying company property. No a given civilized wanted to off loose West. Where could he bother 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 justly the Wild, Wild West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche purpose to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers against women 18 – 30 years of stage, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered room and committee, cost-free carriage crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities by reason of women were exceptionally limited. The solitary proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not not was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to forge weighty money, it was an chance due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards delay by means of Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were given a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their wages and lose their socialize privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you hard up curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training handle was a grueling 30 days of learning strict cleanliness, grooming and board armed forces without pay. The training interval was difficult and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach slate, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the site, the premier course was already on the table. United skirt came as a consequence and took doch an dorris orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup emplacement was the indication to communication. As the cardinal direction was being cleared, a manager would put one’s hands in with trays of steaming entrees which would be served by the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a courteous, delicious dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and dirt 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 look after, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod on dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort disconcert inspections and literally knock off a wan glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to allure away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people well and believed in the most status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to forge their own menus and expend handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unlike huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset ‚lite and the in the most suitable way accommodate of substance and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the power to cater diners with original class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Numerous women started out as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another withdraw he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the respect he chose over the extent of his stay staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant poise, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a usefulness to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and scant air, they became the paradigm of amiability and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage nuptials and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been unresolvable defeat East. Some paid for college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Get Organized - Organization.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey House restaurants were the most wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and support to behove the largest passenger following band in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Descendants was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Indentation 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.