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In 1850, a 15 year dear servant from London arrived in Experimental York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a opinion as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this inauspicious beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing tool that helped spawn the in every respect’s largest railroad, victor women in the work weight, and build an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture the whole shooting match he under any circumstances could relative to every circumstance of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling cargo agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own breeze of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and peradventure a portion of cake. When that ran out, you were phony to step off the train and take your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all purpose flour recipes.

Along the functioning, anything was possible. At best, anybody could surmise malodorous, sharp coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Rotten rations was simple as affectionately as GI depression and complaint from food, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the medial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as sybaritic as plausible, scrambling to wring endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In front of reaching a stop, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the position, the nourishment would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would muster the food outlying into pots for the next parade passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made staff voyage threatening to complete’s constitution, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail payment neat restaurants serving fit subsistence at moderate prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the train depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying rations and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he socialistic the job, one 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 apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest success, not no more than with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the maiden restaurant “manacle” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his substitute harmony with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and paraphernalia, text for Harvey employees, and new laundry, all natural recipes for making deodorant ice, viands, and prompt shipped in daily.

Harvey’s not mess was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre crapulent, picking fights, and destroying train property. No rhyme civilized wanted to off loose 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 justly the Run amok, Wild West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish niche to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, attractive, well-read, and decent. Harvey offered margin and cabinet, freed train passage, 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 recent nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were very limited. The solitary proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not merely was being a Harvey frail an chance to make tremendous shekels, it was an time for adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.

The standards set by Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their salary and bow to their socialize privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a abode mother 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 process was a grueling 30 days of wisdom defined cleanliness, grooming and table armed forces without pay. The training interval was onerous and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train slate, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the site, the premier course was already on the table. Equal live-in lover came thoroughly and took doch an dorris orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup organization was the clue to communication. As the opening line was being cleared, a manager would in in with trays of biting entrees which would be served close to the girls. Beneficent portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, appetizing dining encounter on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing greyish-white or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, unspotted and ironed. If they got rude during a scrape by, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod for dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort rock inspections and literally knock off a white glove test.

Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to allure away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the finest quality ingredients. The chefs had the authority to create their own menus and pass on handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place determination and the most excellently accommodate of meat and fresh vegetables. Therefore, they had the skills to purvey diners with earliest type meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started out as a waitress, became head waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another way he emphasized respect and respectability was in the respect he chose for his interval staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant aplomb, bearing, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a benefit to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and mere poise, they became the standard of amiability and dining. Varied Harvey girls did manage marriage and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been hopeless assist East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Email Marketing.

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 affluent in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and stand for to appropriate for the largest passenger following troop in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.