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In 1850, a 15 year dear friend from London arrived in Brand-new York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He found a position as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this inauspicious beginning, Fred Harvey would vacillate turn into the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing dupe that helped imagine the in every respect’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the accomplishment effective, and erect an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Unknown 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 erudition the whole shooting match he peradventure could take every orientation of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling cargo advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and anciently 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own piece of cake of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and peradventure a kind of cake. When that ran not on, you were calculated to land the train and pinch your chances on whatever was available at the station quiche all recipes.

Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, one could contemplate rancid, sharp coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Perverted food was run-of-the-mill as affectionately as GI torture and illness from food, and the dismay of being left-hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as unrestrainedly as credible, scrambling to get move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. Ahead of reaching a sojourn, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the position, the commons would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would survive the victuals abandon into pots exchange for the next train passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per avert as their take. These conditions and scams made train travel threatening to individual’s constitution, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market to save neat restaurants serving good chow 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 piece in supplying prog and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he left-hand the job, inseparable of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most rapidly expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest good fortune, not at best with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “manacle” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his assign agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and quiddity, text in return Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all natural recipes for successful lawns ice, viands, and construct shipped in daily.

Harvey’s only question was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production inebriated, picking fights, and destroying group property. No a given civilized wanted to work out West. Where could he pocket acceptable, dependable help? Women.

In the 1890’s, the merely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was truly the Desert, Wayward West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth niche to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers for women 18 – 30 years of stage, winning, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered room and quarter, without cost or obligation trail passage, 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 recent nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were unusually limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not not was being a Harvey filly an possibility to earn huge dough, it was an possibility instead of adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.

The standards set away Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month contract during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their salary and give up their travel privileges. The dormitories were exact, with a abode mammy 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 course of action was a grueling 30 days of information stern cleanliness, grooming and record armed forces without pay. The training interval was difficult and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train outline, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the station, the first without a doubt was already on the table. United skirt came as a consequence and took sip orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup emplacement was the indication to communication. As the opening direction was being cleared, a overseer would come in with trays of searing entrees which would be served around the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped in search 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, appetizing dining happening on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing silver or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, flawless and ironed. If they got stained during a shift, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground on dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to rock inspections and closely bring off a white 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 superb meal. He paid his people well and believed in the most distinction ingredients. The chefs had the sage to create their own menus and pay handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not contrasting huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place acceptance and the in the most suitable way accommodate of provisions and brisk vegetables. As a result, they had the capacity to lend diners with first type meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started evasion as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some even became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the prestige he chose over the extent of his wait staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant coolness, veneration, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and scant composure, they became the paradigm of amiability and dining. Many Harvey girls did find association and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been unresolvable defeat East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Dating.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its mountain top, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most successful in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and stand for to behove the largest passenger following company in the Connected States. During both World Wars, the Harvey House was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Fair dining and amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.