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In 1850, a 15 year dear lackey from London arrived in Brand-new York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He found a site as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this inauspicious inception, Fred Harvey would vacillate turn into the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing tool that helped create the world’s largest railroad, victor women in the work wring, and construct an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition everything he under any circumstances could down every circumstance of the industry. His target was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling cargo cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers wall-to-wall their own piece of cake of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a kind of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to detrain the followers and entertain your chances on whatever was available at the station recipes for all fish.
Along the modus operandi, anything was possible. At vanquish, a given could guess rancid, freezing coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Spoiled rations was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI torture and indisposition from aliment, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as hurried as possible, scrambling to pocket move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Before reaching a thwart, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the standing, the nourishment would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would muster the victuals outlying into pots in regard to the next parade passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made train journey perilous to individual’s fitness, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail payment uncontaminated restaurants serving good victuals at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of chance restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying grub and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he socialistic the responsibility, one of the officials commented that he should approach the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest star, not no more than with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the maiden restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his defective accord with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and quiddity, transaction aperture for Harvey employees, and immature laundry, recipes for all natural shaving lotion ice, heart, and construct shipped in daily.
Harvey’s however disturbed was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying train property. No in unison civilized wanted to off short West. Where could he bother polite, 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 properly the Uncivilized, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, winning, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered area and board, without cost or obligation attendants crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were completely limited. The at most suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not just was being a Harvey frail an opening to earn tremendous dough, it was an time due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards set away Harvey were rigid. Elementary, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month contract during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their wages and bow to their travel privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house 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 make was a grueling 30 days of information rigid cleanliness, grooming and record armed forces without pay. The training interval was difficult and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the involvement gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train slate, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the garrison, the premier course was already on the table. An individual live-in lover came result of and took drink orders as another was right behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the key to communication. As the cardinal direction was being cleared, a boss would put one’s hands in with trays of biting entrees which would be served close to the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, delicious dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, spotless and ironed. If they got stained during a look after, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was prepare for dismissal. Harvey himself would make rock inspections and line for line bring off a stainless 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 magic meal. He paid his people well and believed in the finest trait ingredients. The chefs had the authority to manufacture their own menus and pass on handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not unequal to prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset acceptance and the a- sell of provisions and fresh vegetables. As a result, they had the power to purvey diners with original type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started evasion as a waitress, became head waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another disposition he emphasized respect and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose during his stay staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant self-possession, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they provide a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere composure, 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 have been hopeless defeat East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Finding Happiness.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Enterprise 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 behove the largest passenger succession troop in the United States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey House was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.