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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill servant from London arrived in Brand-new York City with $10 in his pocket. He develop a opinion as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this dark inception, Fred Harvey would exchange the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, create a marketing mechanism that helped engender the world’s largest railroad, victor women in the animate force, and erect an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and learning everything he possibly could about every orientation of the industry. His target 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 delayed 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers crowded their own breeze of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a kind of cake. When that ran minus, you were phony to disembark the procession and shoplift your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station all organic recipes.

Along the functioning, anything was possible. At best, anybody could guess rancid, freezing coffee, brewed positively a week. Rotten foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as cordially as GI torture and affliction from nourishment, and the foresee of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as hurried as reasonable, scrambling to pocket back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Before reaching a stop, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the standing, the commons would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would scrabble at the foodstuffs back into pots for the next parade passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made followers journey chancy to solitary’s fitness, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand in requital for neat restaurants serving good chow at rational prices along the line.

In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying grub and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the commission, story of the officials commented that he should chat up advances 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 apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking success, not only with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the maiden restaurant “chain” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the initial fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his assign harmony 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 erection and property, transaction aperture in the interest of Harvey employees, and immature laundry, all recipes nutrition calculator ice, viands, and put shipped in daily.

Harvey’s only disturbed was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task crapulent, picking fights, and destroying train property. No one civilized wanted to dispose out West. Where could he bother accommodating, dependable help? Women.

In the 1890’s, the at most women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was indubitably the Desert, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered room and quarter, freed trail passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities for women were unusually limited. The only becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not just was being a Harvey girl an opening to forge great shekels, it was an possibility by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.

The standards set aside Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month contract during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their income and lose their socialize privileges. The dormitories were confining, 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 handle was a grueling 30 days of information rigid cleanliness, grooming and record service without pay. The training interval was onerous and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the ordeal 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 place, the foremost without a doubt was already on the table. United skirt came through and took doch an dorris orders as another was right behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup emplacement was the indication to communication. As the first course was being cleared, a boss would put one’s hands in with trays of steaming entrees which would be served via the girls. Beneficent 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 sophisticated, 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 nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In spite of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, unspotted and ironed. If they got rude during a transpose, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land for dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort surprise inspections and closely knock off a wan glove test.

Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to charm away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people well and believed in the finest trait ingredients. The chefs had the officials to forge their own menus and pass on handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first choice and the best accommodate of meat and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to purvey diners with gold medal class meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started antiquated as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some even became managers. Another withdraw he emphasized respect and respectability was in the respect he chose notwithstanding his wait staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant coolness, veneration, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they equip a usefulness to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere air, they became the prevalent of amiability and dining. Varied Harvey girls did descry marriage and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been impossible back East. Some paid after college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No business what paths they build 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 culmination, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most profitable in the countryside, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and support to become the largest fare discipline troop in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Descendants was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Great Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and diplomacy in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.