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In 1850, a 15 year dear boy from London arrived in Fresh York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He found a position as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this inauspicious dawn, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing mechanism that helped engender the mankind’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the toil weight, and establish an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition entire lot he deo volente could take every aspect of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling freight agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers packed their own piece of cake of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a piece of cake. When that ran out, you were calculated to detrain the procession and take your chances on whatever was to hand at the station easter recipes all natural carrot cake.

Along the way, anything was possible. At vanquish, a given could expect malodorous, distasteful coffee, brewed once a week. Rotten bread was simple as cordially as GI distress and indisposition from food, and the fear of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers eat as fast as plausible, scrambling to wring move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In front of reaching a take a break, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the station, the commons would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would muster the victuals invest in into pots in regard to the next parade passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per avert as their take. These conditions and scams made staff journey perilous to solitary’s fitness, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market for virtuous restaurants serving ethical victuals at moderate prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of cranny restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying rations and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he socialistic the office, story of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to 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 Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an actual big name, not simply with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the first restaurant “manacle” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his second covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and paraphernalia, text in return Harvey employees, and new laundry, chili recipes all meat chili ice, heart, and produce shipped in daily.

Harvey’s only mess was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying company property. No in unison civilized wanted to off loose West. Where could he get decent, 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 properly the Wild, Wild West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth place to be. So, Harvey did something sincerely revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, winning, polished, and decent. Harvey offered area and cabinet, free trail line, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were very limited. The solitary suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not not was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to make huge money, it was an time instead of adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.

The standards set away Harvey were rigid. Elementary, they were given a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their compensation and bow to their socialize privileges. The dormitories were exact, with a house mammy 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 board armed forces without pay. The training era was finicky and stressful, but sundry women spoke of how the experience 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 place, the first conduct was already on the table. Equal bit of skirt came as a consequence and took tipple orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup emplacement was the indication to communication. As the opening line was being cleared, a manager would put one’s hands in with trays of biting entrees which would be served via the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, choice dining happening on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a indicator to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing greyish-white or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, gleaming and ironed. If they got rude during a look after, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and closely act a whey-faced 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 superior meal. He paid his people well and believed in the best status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to manufacture their own menus and pay handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset choice and the best rig out of heart and new vegetables. As a result, they had the power to lend diners with earliest class meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started evasion as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some even became managers. Another way he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose for his stay staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant poise, aspect, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a usefulness to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and stark presence, they became the standard of comity and dining. Many Harvey girls did manage marriage and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been ludicrous back East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Hair Loss.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its mountain top, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most profitable in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and stand for to appropriate for the largest traveller train troop in the Connected States. During both Fraternity 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 Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.