Frontier Food at Its Finest (Fred Harvey and His Girls, Part 2)

Businessman and restauranteur Fred Harvey was willing to try anything once. Despite the success of his Harvey Houses that lined the tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad route in the 1880s, he had major staffing issues. His waiters, who were all men, would more often than not come to work drunk or hung over or perhaps not show up at all. They were known to insult the customers and throw the dishware. Not exactly the ambience Fred was looking for in his establishments.

So after considering a suggestion from his newest manager, Tom Gable, he ran a series of advertisements in the major eastern newspapers and hoped for a response.

WANTED:

Young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good moral character, 

attractive and intelligent, as waitresses in Harvey Eating Houses on the 

Santa Fe Railroad in the West. Wages $17.50 per month with

room and board. Liberal tips customary. Experience not necessary. 

Write Fred Harvey, Union Depot, Kansas City, Missouri.

He did not have to wait long. Women responded in droves and before long Fred had replaced most of his staff with female employees. 

Each woman signed a contract for six, nine, or twelve months agreeing to learn the "Harvey way," described by some as more difficult than boot camp. An intense orientation period of thirty days was required, and not all new hires made the grade. Pay did not start until training was completed. A Harvey Girl had to follow all instructions, obey employee rules, go wherever she was assigned to work, and remain single during the length of her contract. Uniforms were required and consisted of black dresses with black bow ties under white collars, black shoes and stockings, a white pinafore and white hair ribbon. 

When not serving customers, the girls were expected to clean the dining rooms, shine the chrome-plated coffee urn, silverware, crystal glassware, and pastry cases, and fold napkins. According to Harvey Girl Ruby Douglas Kuntz, in the summer they "fought clouds of dust, and in the winter it was mud that clung to shoes like glue." Each waitress was also responsible for keeping up her station up to standard putting away everything that had been used after the patrons left.

Fred Harvey's vision was for passengers to have identical, exceptional experiences no matter where they stopped along the railroad line. According to on traveler, Fred was a success:

"My first Harvey House meal was in the Chicago Depot, and I especially noticed the attractive uniforms the Harvey Girls were wearing. It never varied the rest of the trip to Los Angeles. At every stop they wore the same uniforms and looked just as neat and tidy as those at the last one. Finally, the third day, I felt like I new those girls even though it was a different restaurant, hundreds of miles from that first one in Chicago. You never thought you were slumming when you ate at Harvey House, they were class establishments, even in the oddest little places, largely, I think, because the girls were so spunky and special. Most of them could have succeeded at anything they tried to do."

High praise indeed.

Harvey Houses continued to operate well after Fred passed away in 1901, but the Great Depression forced the closure of many restaurants. Few people had money to travel, and even the rich were tightening their belts. World War II gave the failing organization a bit of a boost because the railroads were the main troop transport. Many of the girls who had been laid off in the 1930s came back for the duration of the war. 

The last restaurant closed in 1969, signaling the end of an era.

A freelance writer for over ten years, Linda Shenton Matchett is the author of Love's Harvest and Love Found in Sherwood Forest. On the Rails: A Harvey Girls Story is now available! Under Fire, the first book in her trilogy about WWII War Correspondent/amateur sleuth Ruth Brown, will be released on July 25, 2017. Visit Linda at www.LindaShentonMatchett.com

Frontier Food at Its Finest (Fred Harvey and His Girls, Part 1)

Traveling is not for the faint of heart. With today's security concerns, passengers must arrive at the airport or train station hours before departure times and subject themselves to searches, in addition to riding for hours in cramped seating. Then there is the minuscule bag of peanuts or pretzels that is expected to keep travelers nourished during the trip.

However, people literally took their lives in their hands when they traveled by train during the early 1800s. Dangers abounded from train robberies and locomotive breakdowns to buffalo stampedes across the tracks. By all reports, that was nothing compared to the possibility of food poisoning.

As far as the railroads were concerned, their job was to transport passengers from Point A to Point B relatively on time. They had no interest in whether their clients arrived hungry or not. Dotting the route were station cafes, that served "greasy doughnuts and lukewarm, bitter coffee (made once a week), rancid bacon, heavy cold biscuits called 'sinkers,' bowls of gray stew full of strange looking objects, antelope steak so tough you couldn't get your fork into the gravy, and worst of all, the dreaded and notorious 'railroad pie:' two crusts as tasteless as cardboard, held together by a glue of suspicious looking meat and shriveled potatoes." (History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad by Keith L. Bryant, Jr., page 107)

Yikes!

Fortunately, English immigrant Fred Harvey came to the rescue. Having worked in the restaurant industry upon his arrival in America and being subjected to the station cafes, Fred decided to address the deplorable situation. He knew the railroads were growing by leaps and bounds, giving him a ground-floor opportunity. After being turned down by the Kansas Pacific Railroad, he convinced the Aitchison, Topeka and Santa Fe to partner with him.

The first restaurant opened at the Topeka depot in 1875 and was a resounding success. For only thirty-five cents, diners could get a full English-style breakfast that consisted of steak and eggs, hash browns, a stack of pancakes with butter and pure maple syrup, topped off with apple pie and coffee for dessert. (Yum!) By 1884, there were seventeen Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route.

There was only one problem...finding good help. The employees, who were all men, would get "liquored up and either not come to work or come to work drunk and bleary eyed or hung over and shaky. They dropped or threw dishes, made rude remarks to customers, and picked fights." (The Harvey Girls: The Women Who Civilized the West by Juddi Morris, page 17)

After one particularly harrowing incident at the Raton, NM restaurant, Fred fired the entire staff and locked the door. What could he do?

Enter Tom Gable, the newest Harvey House manager. "Women were used in eating houses in the east and they provided to be very satisfactory, so I suggested we do the same." The Harvey Girls: The Women Who Civilized the West by Juddi Morris, page 18) It was a risky idea, but the always-willing-to-try-something Fred bought into it.

The bigger question was would young women buy into it and leave their lives behind to come West?

Come back on February 14th to hear the rest of the story.

A freelance writer for over ten years, Linda Shenton Matchett is the author of Love's Harvest and Love Found in Sherwood Forest. On the Rails: A Harvey Girls Story will be available in February, 2017. Under Fire, the first book in her trilogy about WWII War Correspondent/amateur sleuth Ruth Brown, will be released on July 25, 2017. Visit Linda at www.LindaShentonMatchett.com