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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill boy from London arrived in Fresh York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He develop a opinion as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this portentous origin, Fred Harvey would become the way people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing embellish that helped imagine the in every respect’s largest railroad, hero women in the accomplishment effective, and erect an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, 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 whole shooting match he deo volente could down every position of the industry. His target was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling cargo agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers crowded their own piece of cake of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a kind of cake. When that ran out, you were phony to detrain the tutor and entertain your chances on whatever was to hand at the station recipes for all fish.

Along the practice, anything was possible. At vanquish, a given could contemplate miasmatical, bitter coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Stale food was common as ok as GI depression and illness from aliment, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers devour as hurried as reasonable, scrambling to wring endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. In front of reaching a thwart, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the station, the bread would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrape the scoff abandon into pots on the next parade passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made train journey threatening to individual’s health, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand for clean restaurants serving ethical subsistence at reasonable prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of chance restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying rations and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he socialistic the commission, a specific of the officials commented that he should approach 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 beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking big name, not at best with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the first restaurant “secure” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the original rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his second covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, text in return Harvey employees, and fresh laundry, recipes from all countries ice, heart, and prompt shipped in daily.

Harvey’s only question was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying train property. No one civilized wanted to off loose West. Where could he wiggle 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 Run amok, Move West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers in regard to women 18 – 30 years of mature, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered margin and board, freed trail vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities for women were exceptionally limited. The only suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not not was being a Harvey woman an opening to forge great boodle, it was an time due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.

The standards agreed by means of Harvey were rigid. Elementary, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their compensation and bow to their socialize privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a diet mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you broke curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training course of action was a grueling 30 days of culture defined cleanliness, grooming and record armed forces without pay. The training period was onerous 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 schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the station, the foremost progress was already on the table. Equal skirt came result of and took sip orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup organization was the opener to communication. As the senior line was being cleared, a overseer would come up in with trays of biting entrees which would be served by the girls. Beneficent 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, flavourful dining happening on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing polished or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, unspotted and ironed. If they got rude during a shift, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land for dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and truly perform a white 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 well and believed in the finest status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to forge their own menus and pay handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not contrasting great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original choice and the best rig out of heart and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the skills to cater diners with first type meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many 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 notwithstanding his wait 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 Girl meant coolness, aspect, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not solely did they accord a service to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and stark poise, they became the prevalent of amiability and dining. Varied Harvey girls did descry marriage and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been hopeless back East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No concern what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Parenting.

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 wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and buttress to become the largest traveller following band in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean 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.