“pot walloper”: This was Fred’s own phrase, passed down through family lore, author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.
photography innovator R. A. Lewis: Author correspondence with John S. Craig, who maintains Craig’s Daguerreian Registryat www.daguerreotype.com.
dying in August 1855: Death certificate from Wolverhampton District, Aug. 31, 1855, HHMC, originally discovered by Fred’s great-granddaughter Helen Harvey Mills and great-great-granddaughter Natalie Bontumasi.
“concerned about trying”: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr., who said he heard this directly from his great-aunt Minnie, Fred’s daughter.
his friend and mentor: Fred’s naturalization papers are among the many original items pasted into the Fred Harvey scrapbook in DHC. Hitchcock is listed as a witness on the form.
William Doyle: While Fred himself told the story of his Merchants Dining Saloon partner, no published account has ever mentioned his partner’s name. Based on my examination of the 1860 U.S. census, for the Fifth Ward of the city of St. Louis, p. 293, Doyle is the most likely candidate. He and his family are reported as living in the dwelling directly next to Fred’s; more telling, Doyle is listed as a “saloon keeper,” and in the next entry Fred is listed as a “restaurant keeper.” They also both reported similar assets. Doyle’s name does not appear in any of the city’s commercial directories for this time period, so it is possible this is a coincidence and Fred’s partner was someone else, not listed in the census. But best available evidence points to Doyle.
“Negroes Bought Here”: Bancroft, Slave-Trading in the Old South, p. 141; the sign was in front of Bolton, Dickins & Company.
on the steamship Africa: His departure was noted in the New York Herald, Oct. 27, 1859.
brought his father: Fred’s father and sister appear in the 1860 U.S. census as living with him in St. Louis.
blond Dutch woman: Little is known about Ann Harvey because she was later written out of Fred’s life story. But she clearly appears, by name, as his wife in the 1860 federal census, and she is referred to in the St. Louis city census done later that same year. Her hair color is assumed based on color photos in LCHSC of the children she had with Fred.
“I’m for whoever wins”: This quote was related by Fred’s daughter Minnie to Harold L. Henderson in “Harvey,” p. 55.
CHAPTER 2: THE LAST TRAIN STOP IN AMERICA
Captain Rufus Ford: Biographical information comes from 1860 and 1870 U.S. censuses; Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi, p. 421; and Petersen, Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi, p. 267.
“Horrible & Slow-Jolting”: Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 97.
“young, skinny, wiry”: Cullinan, United States Postal Service, p. 79.
photo taken of him: Photo in DHC was sent to Byron Harvey Jr. in 1958 by Ralph R. Richardson, a descendant of one of Rufus Ford’s partners.
nation’s first traveling post office: Details of this episode come from a letter Fred wrote, June 26, 1884, as part of an effort to make sure his boss got credit for the invention, published in U.S. Railway Mail Service, History of the Railway Mail Service (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885), copies in DHC.
“it simply rained hogs”: Details in this paragraph are from a June 15, 1962, press release from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, “Centennial of First U.S. Railway Car,” DHC.
became part of those tragic: Almost everything about Ann Harvey’s existence has to be inferred from other facts, including her death: We know when she gave birth and when Fred remarried, so we must assume she died in between from some complication of childbirth. While there has always been family gossip about her (author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.), the only time she was acknowledged in print was in the KCJP, April 20, 1936, in an article that claimed that “after the death of his first wife, the bride he brought with him from England, the original Fred Harvey married again.” According to Harold L. Henderson, “Harvey,” p. 55, the family requested a correction on that article—primarily because it went on to suggest, incorrectly, that Ford and one of his younger siblings had different mothers, both “facts” apparently copied from a Who’s Who entry at the time. A note was left in the KCJP morgue to assure “the same error will not be again committed,” and the Who’s Who entry was changed in the 1938–1939 edition.
His new wife was Barbara: Sally’s background is recreated from the 1860 U.S. census and Mattas family documents in DHC, primarily those put together when Sally’s mother made a claim for a widow’s pension on Jan. 17, 1893, National Archives Record MC382408.
Harvey family Bible: This Bible was, for many years, in the collection of Daggett Harvey Sr., who in the 1960s extensively cataloged the family holdings in his possession as part of his exploration of Fred’s past, in a document called “Diaries and Other Biographical Material Left by Fred Harvey.” Almost every item on his list continues to be part of DHC—except this Bible. Since everything else in the collection corresponds exactly to his notes, I have to assume this is accurate as well.
marriage record: Book C, p. 19, of St. Joseph marriage records for 1863—discovered by MaryAnne Widel, archivist at the North West Missouri Genealogical Society.
CHAPTER 3: A GENTLEMAN AMONG THE BLEEDING KANSANS
“Herds of buffalo”: This quotation is from David Benjamin, and is paraphrased in all his obituaries, including KCT, May 8, 1933.
wide dirt streets: Descriptions of town come from the photos in David Phillips’s two excellent books, The Taming of the West and The West: An American Experience, which feature new prints of the work of Leavenworth photographer E. E. Henry, especially pp. 34–53.
“pistol-packin’ pencil pusher”: Phrase coined by historian Cecil Howes in “Pistol Packin’ Pencil Pushers,” p. 116, his essay on frontier journalism; but most information on Anthony comes from “Fighting Words: Pistol Packin’ Dan Anthony and Frontier Journalism,” the thesis by my primary researcher on this book, Jason Schwartz.
“Dr. J. J. McBride”: Doctor ads from LT, May 11, 1866, p. 2. and LT, March 30, 1865.
“The men of Leavenworth”: LC, Apr. 6, 1865, p. 3.
died nine days later: The children’s death notices are in LT, March 31 and April 11, 1865.
peculiar item: LT, Oct. 28, 1865, p. 2.
“three weeks rustication”: LT, Oct. 7, 1865.
a position selling ads: Fred is identified as General Business Agent in the Dec. 2, 1865, edition of the LC, p. 2.
“large display”: LT, Oct. 12, 1866.
joined a Masonic: A May 26, 1931, letter to Fred’s daughter Sybil from the grand secretary emeritus of the Masonic Bodies of Kansas details his joining the Leavenworth Commandery No. 1 on May 27, 1868, DHC.
Shakespeare was a favorite: There’s an inventory of books from Fred’s library that were donated to Stanford University in the 1940s in DHC; many were Shakespeare; other of his Shakespeare books are still in family hands, mostly in KHC in Santa Fe.
“High Iron”: See Beebe, High Iron, p. i.
they had all fallen apart: To recreate how Leavenworth failed to become a major train town, I relied on Taylor, “Boom Town Leavenworth;” Bob Burton, “Southern Kansas Heritage,” from the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society, which discusses railway politics; and “Era of Peace, Part 42,” in Cutler’s monumental History of the State of Kansas.
CHAPTER 4: RAILROAD WARRIOR
informed the publisher: This, and the details that follow about his travels and negotiations with his bosses at the newspaper and elsewhere, come from the earliest of Fred’s datebooks, DHC, which was started in 1867 but used by him during 1868 as well. Pages unnumbered, but some dated.
“how to ask for things”: Quoted in Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 193.
“Once I’ve sold an ad for you”: This dialogue was recounted by Fred in his Sept. 12, 1868, entry, 1867 datebook, DHC.
“Fred Harvey was the best”: Dan Anthony, who owned the LC, which later merged with the Times, was quoted saying t
his in the LT obituary of Fred, Feb. 10, 1901.
paid him only $40: Harvey, April 12, 1868, entry, 1867 datebook, DHC.
“Still in Pittsburgh”: Harvey, Jan. 1, 1869, entry, 1869 datebook, DHC.
“not for mere pleasure”: From a biographical sketch of Fred in Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, vol 3, pt. 1, pp. 385–87.
a silent partnership: Documented in Harvey, Nov. 28, 1868, entry, 1867 datebook, DHC. Background on Ellsworth cattle business is from Streeter, “Ellsworth as a Texas Cattle Market.”
article about Hickok: “Wild Bill,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, February 1867, p. 273.
telling the St. Louis Democrat: The article appeared in the April 16, 1867, edition. The reporter was Henry Stanley, who went on to his own renown as the journalist later sent to the jungles of Africa to find the lost Scottish explorer David Livingstone; it was he who spoke—or at least claimed that he spoke—the immortal words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
$4,485.22: Harvey, Nov. 28, 1868, entry, 1867 datebook, DHC.
“physical disability”: July 1864 draft registry for St. Joseph, Mo., line 14, National Archives and Record Center.
“Started out this morning”: Harvey, Jan. 7, 1869, entry, 1869 datebook, DHC.
“equal parts spirits”: Harvey, undated entries, 1879–1880 datebook, DHC.
“His nervous disposition”: Minnie Harvey in Harold L. Henderson, “Harvey,” p. 15.
published a study: Beard, “Neurasthenia, or Nervous Exhaustion.”
“more distress and annoyance”: Beard, “Nature and Treatment of Neurasthenia,” p. 580.
“The miseries of the rich”: Beard, Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion, 3rd ed., pp. 30–31.
“a disease of”: Ibid., p. 25.
“It cannot be denied”: Ibid., p. 254.
“Americanitis”: According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the first printed use of this great word was in Gentleman’s Magazine, Oct. 1882, p. 500.
CHAPTER 5: OPPORTUNISTIC SPONGE
decided to take his wife: All the details of this trip are from Harvey, July 5-Sept. 10, 1869, entries, 1869 datebook, DHC; the letters mentioned are from Fred’s “Magic Ink” copybook, covering the same period, HHMC.
National Peace Jubilee: Details in Jarman, “Big Boom in Boston.”
“I see you have not yet”: Harvey to Wilder & Sleeper (publishers of LC), Aug. 18, 1869, in Magic Ink copybook, HHMC.
to the New York Central station: Information on the New York Central ride comes from author correspondence with Ori Siegel, a railroad historian I met through the NYC-RR Yahoo! group.
The doctor said: From letters Fred wrote home Aug. 16–18, 1869, Magic Ink copybook, HHMC.
four-bedroom house: It is still there, 1318 South Second Street.
“We accept the proposition”: Harvey, early March 1875, entry, 1875 datebook, DHC.
“Fred was like an opportunistic sponge”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.
closest friend: Information about Captain Byron Schermerhorn comes from “Byron Schermerhorn: The First President, Businessman, Poet, Civil War Intelligence Agent,” in an undated issue of the Brink’s Company annual report, pp. 8–9, LCHSC; author correspondence with Joseph Irwin, a descendant of Schermerhorn’s wife, Nellie Irwin; and Schermerhorn, Schermerhorn Genealogy and Family Chronicles, p. 245.
“The Stale Trout”: This illustrated volume of Schermerhorn’s poetry is in the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections of the library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“Bubbles Bursting”: CT, Sept. 20, 1873, p. 1.
tracks too slimy: Account in Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, p. 56.
“hopper dozers”: “Crops,” CT, May 29, 1877, p. 2.
CHAPTER 6: SAVAGE AND UNNATURAL FEEDING
he would re-read a list: This list is still pasted inside Fred’s 1872 datebook, DHC.
Pullman had grown up: Pullman biographical material is from Leyendecker, Palace Car Prince.
“the atmosphere was something dreadful”: Ibid., p. 37.
“varnish”: I picked this up from the delicious railroad writing of Lucius Beebe, who uses it in all his books; the first reference I can find is in High Iron, p. 190.
“freight doesn’t complain”: I first came across this phrase, which is also sometimes “freight don’t complain,” in Stoll, “Harvey Girls Then, Now, and Forever,” p. 24.
first major workforce of free black men: Tye, Rising from the Rails.
“whom passengers could regard”: Ibid., p. 3.
“If there is any word”: “Railroad Refreshments,” NYT, June 10, 1857, p. 4.
“American cookery is worse”: Quoted forty years later by Finck, who felt it was still true, in Food and Flavor, p. 28.
Logan House hotel in Altoona: See Porterfield, Dining by Rail, p. 13.
“The Grand Excursion”: This is based on the exhaustive eyewitness account of the trip in Seymour, Incidents of a Trip, chaps. 7 and 8.
The onboard dinner menu: The menu as well as descriptions of the photos are taken from Brey, “Carbutt and the Union Pacific’s Grand Excursion to the 100th Meridian.”
“only too glad to know”: Seymour, Incidents of a Trip, p. 86.
CHAPTER 7: THEY’LL TRY ANYTHING
started a company, Harvey & Rice: This account of the often-mangled story of Harvey and Rice’s partnership comes from several sources, some of which don’t agree on details, including “How Fame Has Been Won for the Harvey Service by Devotion to a Business Principle,” a Fred Harvey company biography in SFMag, Feb. 1916; the biographical sketch of Rice in Portrait and Biographical Record of Leavenworth, Douglas, and Franklin Counties, Kansas, p. 837; Harold L. Henderson, “Harvey,” pp. 19–20; and Stoll, “Harvey Girls Then, Now, and Forever,” for which she actually interviewed Rice’s great-grandson, Don Phelps.
more grueling pace: This is borne out by the entries in Fred’s shiny red datebook covering 1875–1877, DHC, as well as reports in local newspapers. Generally, whenever the freight agent for a major railroad arrived in town, it was news.
“Shall I make a deduction”: This notation and those below it (including “Send Ball some white fish”) all from Fred’s datebook for 1875–1877 (shiny red), with no dates except the cigar bill, which was for Feb. 1875.
They really hated being: The friction between Harvey and Rice has never been well explained. Some sources suggest Rice’s standards weren’t high enough; some say Rice was angered because Fred wanted half the profits but didn’t do half the work; one source conjectured the problem was the delivery of profits—whichever of them got to a location first had to bring the profits home to split them, and there was distrust that this was working out fairly.
a scant 560: All the track lengths and the dates of completion for different Santa Fe lines come from the invaluable resource in the appendix to Marshall, Santa Fe. Based on the company’s own records, it accounts for every length of track the Santa Fe and its associated roads ever ran on.
“They’ll try anything”: Millbrook, “Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe,” p. 10.
Charlie Morse: Morse wrote a privately published autobiography for his children, A Sketch of My Life. His rail career is covered on pp. 32–40. Oddly, he didn’t mention Fred at all.
superb deal: There is no contemporaneous reporting on this deal, which was never written about during the first decade the companies did business. But it is referenced in a digest of the contractual dealings between the two companies, “Brief History of Santa Fe Fred Harvey Relations,” which is dated Aug. 4, 1942, and appears to have been produced using original documents otherwise long lost, pp. 1–4, DHC.
When they opened for business: The only eyewitness account of this day comes from “Engineer for 51 Years to Pull Last Throttle Today,” Kansas City Journal, June 30, 1926, Harvey clipping file, HMC; and “Shepard Smith, a Famous Frisco Engineer for Forty-two Years—Retired June 30,” Frisco Employes’
Magazine, July 1926, p. 8. Interestingly, while every corporate history ever done says the eating house opened Jan. 1, 1876—and it was first mentioned in the Leavenworth paper on Jan. 5—Shep claimed in two separate interviews that his meal was in 1875.
nobody wanted to go past Topeka: This fanciful notion came from a May 5, 1905, article in the Philadelphia North American by Leigh Mitchell Hodges, which the Santa Fe reprinted two years later during the inaugural year of SFMag, starting on p. 271 of its July 1907 edition. It turned out to be the first long, widely disseminated story about the Harvey empire.
“the neatest, cleanest dining hall”: “All Bran New,” LT, Jan. 5, 1876, p. 3.
some ten million visitors: This statistic, and other details about the fair, are from Rydell, All the World’s a Fair, p. 10.
“Declaration of Rights for Women”: Stanton, Concise History of Woman Suffrage, pp. 299–303.
through Enoch Hoag: Mentioned in Harvey, Feb. 13, 1872, entry, 1872 datebook, DHC.
“People were a little disappointed”: Quoted in John W. Ripley and Robert Richmond, The Santa Fe in Topeka: A Book of Nostalgic Recollections About Santa Fe Personalities and Events (Topeka, Kans.: Shawnee County Historical Society, 1979), p. 14, citing the Topeka Commonwealth, Nov. 5, 1876, but the same writing elsewhere cites the Topeka Daily Blade, Nov. 6, 1876.
CHAPTER 8: SUITED TO THE MOST EXIGENT OR EPICUREAN TASTE
Captain returned the favor: According to author interview with Joe Irwin, descendant of Schermerhorn’s wife, an inscription in a Schermerhorn family Bible says Fredericka Harvey Schermerhorn was born and died in 1877.
“To hell, I guess”: This story about Dodge has appeared in many places, one of the earlier is Wright, Dodge City, p. 150.
as an experiment: The contract from March 20, 1876, is in Santa Fe railroad file 306, KSHSC.
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