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In 1850, a 15 year dear servant from London arrived in Experimental York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He found a opinion as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this portentous beginning, Fred Harvey would change the way people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing tool that helped imagine the in every respect’s largest railroad, victor women in the animate weight, and erect an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the entirety he peradventure could relative to every aspect of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative attitude as a traveling consignment cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers wall-to-wall their own agonizing of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and peradventure a kind of cake. When that ran out, you were phony to land the train and entertain your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station all recipes nutrition calculator.

Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, anybody could contemplate rancid, sharp coffee, brewed once a week. Rotten food was common as affectionately as GI difficulty and affliction from nourishment, and the consternation of being hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as hurried as plausible, scrambling to wring back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. In front of reaching a thwart, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the standing, the nourishment would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would scrape the food back into pots on the next trail passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made staff voyage threatening to solitary’s health, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail for virtuous restaurants serving good food at moderate prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of opening restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying rations and laughed him out of their office. But as he communistic the job, story of the officials commented that he should chat up advances the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest good fortune, 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 first restaurant “confine” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his assign agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and quiddity, passage for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, healthy recipes with all natural ingredients ice, heart, and put shipped in daily.

Harvey’s not problem was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work inebriated, picking fights, and destroying company property. No rhyme civilized wanted to accomplishment out West. Where could he bother 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 properly the Wild, Berserk West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth place to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers against women 18 – 30 years of age, attractive, polished, and decent. Harvey offered area and committee, free trail passage, 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 till nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were very limited. The alone proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not not was being a Harvey woman an chance to earn tremendous money, it was an opportunity by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.

The standards gel by Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their salary and bow to their wanderings privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a strain 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 make was a grueling 30 days of information stern cleanliness, grooming and record accommodation without pay. The training interval was finicky and stressful, but sundry women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach programme, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the garrison, the prime progress was already on the table. An individual bit of skirt came thoroughly and took doch an dorris orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup organization was the opener to communication. As the cardinal practice was being cleared, a executive would come in with trays of biting entrees which would be served via the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, delicious dining happening on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing silver or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, flawless and ironed. If they got obscene during a transpose, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground on dismissal. Harvey himself would for rock inspections and truly act a white glove test.

Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would try to charm away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the most status ingredients. The chefs had the officialdom to father their own menus and pay handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not contrasting huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first determination and the best rig out of provisions and new vegetables. Therefore, they had the ability to purvey diners with first class meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Numerous women started antiquated as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the prestige he chose notwithstanding his interval staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant aplomb, veneration, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a benefit to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and absolute composure, they became the orthodox of civility and dining. Varied Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on alliance and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been unresolvable defeat East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No business what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Divorce.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most successful in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and support to become the largest traveller discipline company in the Harmonious States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Company was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Great Depression led to the demise of the empire. Fair dining and diplomacy in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.