Appetite for America

by Stephen Fried

  laid out all the money himself: The documents from this transaction are in the Harvey scrapbook, DHC, and show Fred paying $4,275 to the previous owners on Jan. 1, 1878, and $1,000 to the railroad the same day “for furniture and fixtures.”

  ambushing the Raton Pass: This episode is recreated from accounts in Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 45; and Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 149.

  “has no cards”: “Florence Railroad House,” Florence Herald, Feb. 23, 1878.

  The effusive chef: Descriptions of Phillips and his background, and the life and food of the hotel (over the next pages), all come from a lengthy article called “Notes from America,” in London’s The Field, by Samuel Nugent Townshend, based on his Oct. 1878 press junket, which was then reprinted in the Florence Herald on March 15, 1879, as “An Englishman’s View of Florence.”

  share of the profits: In his 1879 datebook on January 22, DHC, Fred wrote, “I have this day arranged with W. H. Phillips to pay him one hundred dollars per month, and two per cent of the net proffits arrisening from the Houses … he to devote his intire time for one year in consideration of the above.”

  “Every Tuesday and Friday”: Florence Herald, June 28, 1879.

  CHAPTER 9: COWBOY VICTUALER

  niece and nephew from England: The U.S. census for 1880 (Kearny County, p. 7) shows them working at the hotel; the story about Annie Baumann’s failed marriage is family lore, from author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr., but her visit is recounted on p. 5 of a 1986 Florence Historical Society publication in LCHSC.

  herd for sale: The documents relating to Fred’s purchase of the XY herd are all in the Harvey scrapbook in DHC. And the sale is covered in Blanchard, Conquest of Southwest Kansas, p. 205.

  “the roundup”: Strong to Harvey, March 3, 1879, in scrapbook, DHC.

  invited the entire town out: This July 4 picnic is recreated from Mrs. Carrie E. Davies, “Lakin in 1878,” in Kearny County Historical Society, History of Kearny County, Kansas, pp. 51–52, as well as a June 26, 1935, letter to Fred Harvey company from a Lakin history buff, C. A. Louks, KSHSC.

  praying for each of them: This was described in a letter from Byron Schermerhorn’s daughter Nell (“Mrs. E. D. Smith”) to her childhood friend May Harvey, Christmas 1937, HHMC.

  one of the richest ranchers: Biographical information on Jack Hardesty comes from the Hardesty House museum in Dodge City; the digested clippings file of the Ford County Globe at the Kansas Heritage Center in Dodge City; Fredric Young, Dodge City: Up Through a Century in Story and Pictures (1972), p. 117; and Haywood, Trails South, pp. 99–102.

  languishing partnership: According to entries in Fred’s 1879 datebook, DHC, it appears they were now managing only the Wallace and Hugo locations—it’s unclear what happened to Lawrence.

  So, on a Thursday in early October: Harvey, Oct. 9, 1879, entry, 1879 datebook, DHC; this entry is also used for the dollar amount of the deposit.

  told him to close out the account: While there are many versions of this story, this one comes from p. 9 of an unpublished manuscript by the Saturday Evening Post writer Edward Hungerford, who wrote several articles based on interviews with company officials at the turn of the century, but possibly intended this forty-page manuscript, “The Dining Room That Is Two Thousand Miles Long,” to become a book.

  “Give me half”: While this anecdote about the last gasp of Harvey & Rice clearly is accurate—it comes from the teller himself, who later became Fred’s most trusted employee—the exact date of the end of Harvey’s relationship with Rice has been the subject of debate. Many sources claim they were in business together for only a year, and their partnership ended when Harvey started working with the Santa Fe, which is most likely AT&SF revisionism. A couple of sources claim they remained in business together until 1882—citing a biographical sketch of Rice published in 1899. I arrived at this date in 1879 by examining all these materials and cross-referencing them with Harvey’s own datebooks, where this 1879 transaction is the last time Harvey ever mentions Rice.

  Fred also moved his growing XY herd: Details of the move and the life on his ranch come from various essays in History of Kearny County, Kansas, including one written by Sam Corbett (pp. 446–47), who ran the XY ranch, and “The Eli Hall Story” (pp. 169–70) in the Deerfield section.

  He chose Slavens & Oburn: His deal with them is detailed in his 1879 datebook, notation of Jan. 12, 1880, DHC. While it is likely he would have chosen a K.C. firm anyway, it is interesting to note that he was probably lobbied hard by the new head of the Kansas City Stock Yards—his old colleague Charlie Morse, who resigned from the railroad when William Strong got the job he coveted.

  “I’ve seen many”: Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 193.

  CHAPTER 10: VIVA LAS VEGAS

  Dr. John Henry Holliday: Details of Doc Holliday’s brief stay in Las Vegas are from Roberts, Doc Holliday, pps. 108–14.

  “Murderers, Confidence Men, Thieves”: LVO, April 8, 1880.

  “We are informed that a purse”: LVO, May 10, 1881.

  “the worst-looking boxcars”: Frank C. Monroe, “Reminiscences of the Santa Fe Frontier,” SFMag, Oct. 1931, p. 44.

  John B. Stetson: I first came across this connection in Brenda Maddock’s biography of D. H. Lawrence, A Married Man; she found it in Jones, Health-Seekers in the Southwest.

  Jesse James … was reportedly joined: Bowman, Montezuma, p. 12. This book and Sheppard, Montezuma—both very hard to find (I borrowed the copies from the Montezuma’s own collection)—were my primary sources on the hotel, besides the actual clips from the LVO.

  He liked to hop off the train: Railway Review, Feb. 29, 1888, p. 568.

  “You know better than this”: This quote, and the scene, come from the recreation of a Harvey inspection in L. L. Waters, Steel Trails to Santa Fe, p. 272.

  the Uncle Dick: Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 218.

  could see sections: Actually, you can still see them; author interview (in moving engine) with current engineer of the Southwest Chief, Randy Decker, Sept. 3, 2005.

  Ironically, there was not going to be a Santa Fe: A good recounting of this can be found in Tobias and Woodhouse, Santa Fe, pp. 14–20.

  tracked down to a house: Covered in the LVO, esp. “‘The Kid’ Killed,” July 18, 1881, p. 2.

  several books: See Robert N. Mullin and Charles E. Welch, “Billy the Kid: The Making of a Hero,” Western Folklore, 32, no. 2 (April 1973), p. 106.

  “Daring Desperados”: LT, Oct. 28, 1881, p. 1.

  The Santa Fe had hired a shiny new: Page’s challenging time at the Montezuma is documented in his diaries, which are part of the Dr. William H. Page Collection, Hale Library Archives, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

  “I know you to be such”: Ibid., Sept. 18, 1881.

  Competing restaurant owners: Two stories in the Albuquerque Morning Democrat capture the friction, one from Aug. 4, 1886, “A Protest,” and another from Feb. 3, 1888, which reads, “No thanks, we don’t need an eating house. We have a number of enterprising grocers in Albuquerque who are able to furnish our people with canned goods in just as satisfactory a manner as Mr. Fred Harvey.”

  “Eating Establishment Excitements”: LVO, Sept. 12, 1881, p. 2.

  “Harvey Heard”: LVO, Sept. 13, 1881.

  “a blow on the right temple”: Dr. Page, “Physician’s Day-Book,” Sept. 1881, Page Collection.

  CHAPTER 11: WE ARE IN THE WILDS, WE ARE NOT OF THEM

  “Papa, when are you”: Minnie Harvey to Fred Harvey, Jan. 31, 1882, DHC, which also mentions their new telephone.

  electric lights: The arrival of the first representative of the Brush Electric Light company in Cleveland, the predominant seller of lighting systems to major cities, made the front page of the LT, July 23, 1881: “Electric Light: A Gentleman Here Talking Up the Matter to Our Citizens.”

  It even fell to Sally: Leaf, March 7, 1881, signed by Sally Harvey to Ford Harvey,
in collection of Ford’s daughter, Kitty, donated to the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

  euchre: One of the earlier books fueling the craze was Meehan, Laws and Practice of the Game of Euchre. Sally’s euchre playing was covered more and more into the 1880s and early 1890s, especially in the Leavenworth Standard’s April 28, 1888, description of a big euchre party thrown by Sally for her visiting sister.

  “Mother, make the girls”: Nell Smith to May Harvey, Christmas 1937, HHMC, details this and the holiday anecdotes below.

  Cherubic, charming: Dave Benjamin’s entry into the Harvey world was well documented in the KCStar, Oct. 15, 1922 (which includes a sketch of him at age twenty-one) and again in the KCStar, “Turning Point of My Career,” Dec. 4, 1932. Information on his brothers’ backgrounds comes from Harry’s obituary, “Harry L. Benjamin Is Dead,” KCStar, April 24, 1923, p. 3.

  J. J. Blower: A letter from Blower, dated Jan. 19, 1882, in KSHSC, explains: “Having resigned my position with Mr. Harvey owing to a misunderstanding between us I find myself without employment.” The letter is one of the earliest existing on AT&SFRR Eating Houses stationery: It lists Fred as “Proprietor” and Blower as “Gen’l Accountant”—each of their names at the top of the page on either side. (It may be that their “misunderstanding” was over whether this was Fred’s private company or a partnership with the Santa Fe.)

  Ford was away at college: Ford Harvey to family, Jan. 17, 1880, LCHSC: “I arrived at Racine about eight o’clock Wednesday night and came up to the college on a wagon.”

  “things are now”: “Springs ‘Snack,’” LVO, Feb. 11, 1882, p. 2.

  list at the top: See A. Conkle to C. Pullen, Nov. 24, 1881, on “General Office Hot Springs Company” stationery, which lists Fred Harvey as “Manager” and includes an analysis by “Prof. F. V. Hayden U.S. Geologist” showing temperatures of up to 130 degrees. Dr. William H. Page Collection, Hale Library Archives, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

  “the waters are especially”: “Springs ‘Snack.’”

  favorite coffee purveyors: While the relationship between the companies is well documented—they did magazine ads together, and are in each other’s corporate histories—a nice insight into the relationship is a touching Nov. 23, 1908, letter in DHC to Fred’s son Ford from a Chase executive, letting him know of the elder Chase’s death.

  And on the morning of Sunday: Recreated from “Gay Guests,” LVO, April 17, 1882, p. 2, which describes the trip.

  It was lit by: This is according to the LVO coverage on opening day, April 17, 1882, which included a late edition that reproduced the menu for the evening while the banquet “is ‘on.’” This recreation, however, also uses the next-day coverage, including “Banquet and Ball,” LVO, April 18, 1882, p. 2.

  “dangerously ill”: “Railroad Revelations: The Run of Items Found in the News-Butcher’s Train Box,” LVO, April 19, 1882.

  Raymond Excursions: Background on their significance is in Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001), pp. 22–24.

  had left the Boston area: A Raymond & Whitcomb ad in the Boston Globe, Feb. 15, 1882, gives departure dates and times, and complete route.

  Montezuma porters complaining: Springs Spray, LVO, May 1, 1882.

  “Captain Manners”: This scene is recreated from Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 164.

  The entire trip was documented: The junket was described, in glorious detail, in a privately published book, Che! Wah! Wah! by George Street, which is the source of all quotations through the end of the chapter.

  CHAPTER 12: HARVEY GIRLS

  “gang of gamblers”: See Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 113, for the entire anecdote.

  “A colored waiter”: LVO, May 3, 1882, p. 2.

  “several darkies”: Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 194.

  “would be satisfied”: Harold L. Henderson, “Harvey,” p. 42.

  He was traveling with young Tom Gable: Background on Gable comes from U.S. census for 1870 and 1880; the Linn Street address is confirmed by Gable’s entry in the autograph book of young May Harvey in 1882, DHC, which was a birthday present from Tom’s daughter Mary.

  “old Fred lit like a bomb”: Gable was interviewed by Erna Fergusson about this incident, for Our Southwest, pp. 194–95; quotes from him are adapted from that section of the book.

  “Don’t throw the dishes”: This recollection by early Harvey Girl Matilda Thomas was posted on the Web site of the Florence Harvey House Museum: www.florenceks.com/text/local/local_hh-history.htm. Its origin is unclear, but the folks at the Florence museum take their Harvey Girl oral history pretty seriously, so I don’t doubt its authenticity.

  “The Scarcity of Women”: This article was reprinted in LVO, Nov. 18, 1881.

  They sent cables back: It is Harvey family lore who picked these first Harvey Girls in Leavenworth. Some sources have claimed Sally was actively involved, which is likely, and remained involved for years, which is pretty unlikely. But since Fred, Dave, and Tom Gable made this decision, it is probable their wives found the first girls.

  “And that”: Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 195.

  Minnie O’Neal: Minnie’s story is pieced together from U.S. census records and an account that her daughter-in-law, Helen Gillespie, gave in Poling-Kempes’s Harvey Girls, pp. 62–64.

  Tom Gable laid out the rules: The rules about the Harvey uniforms, woven into Minnie’s story, are adapted from Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 100.

  be in bed: Earliest proof of this is a sign printed in 1887 with employee rules, JKC.

  take a damp cloth: Recollection of a later Harvey Girl, Violet Grundman, about what she was told of the early years, quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 55.

  one other significant female workforce: Noted by Poling-Kempes, Ibid., p. 60.

  Four new eating houses: Dates of location openings confirmed on datelines in Harvey company files, HMC, and by cross-referencing letterheads on eating house stationery.

  “in the Harvey Service”: This phrase eventually became so popular that it was used as the title of the Harvey section in the SFMag.

  large silver brooch: Some of the oldest service pins have been on display at the small museum off the lobby of Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon.

  cramped one-room office: “Brief History of Santa Fe Fred Harvey Relations,” Aug. 4, 1942, p. 1, DHC.

  younger brother Harry: “Harry L. Benjamin Is Dead,” KCStar, April 24, 1923; also “Personalities in the Hotel Business,” Hotel Monthly, Aug. 1943, p. 22.

  not uncommon for each house to generate: Fred did this computation for the Topeka house for the month of May 1877 in his 1875 datebook, DHC.

  “one of those keen-eyed”: “How One Man Conducts Sixty-six Hotels,” Leslie’s Illustrated, Feb. 27, 1913, n.p., HMC.

  “maintaining the standard”: Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 111.

  “their secrets of success”: “Personalities in the Hotel Business,” p. 21.

  He combined: What Dave did is not really documented well, only its result; a reading of Fred’s letters and datebooks makes it clear that he did not do all the writing and codification of the early Harvey ethos. This was Dave’s job. He was likely helped by his brother Harry, who was reportedly a better writer, but Harry’s role in the business never became very public, so the contribution of the Benjamin brothers was largely credited to Dave.

  “fundamentals”: This list, constantly recopied through generations of Harvey paperwork, was found in a xeroxed Fred Harvey Recipe Book compiled by Roy Palmer, who was a Harvey dining car cook in the 1920s, on p. 1. From the collection of Brenda Thowe.

  sign that hung: 1887 sign with employee rules, JKC.

  “cup code”: I relied on versions of this from Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, pp. 51 and 217; Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 114.

  “We concentrate on it”: Harold L. Hender
son, “Harvey,” p. 53.

  telegraph code: Copies of the company’s printed telegraph codes, and Fred’s own handwritten codebooks, are in DHC.

  “sack of potatoes”: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.

  “The Crank”: Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 111.

  He proposed four time zones: Information about William Allen’s standardizing time is in Prerau, Seize the Daylight, pp. 43–45.

  CHAPTER 13: LIKE A HOUSE AFIRE

  Fred was amazed: Ford Harvey manuscript, undated but presumed written in the early 1920s, apparently for American Magazine, UA, box 3, file 16, p. 6, HMC.

  His personal profits: The earliest P and L that survives, in the scrapbook, is for 1886, in which his share was $58,725.88; by the time of that P and L, they had the same locations as in 1884 and 1885, when this chapter is set; this conservative estimate is based on $50,000 in 1885.

  he offered to buy them out: Paperwork concerning this sale is in the Fred Harvey scrapbook, DHC, beginning with the agreement on Aug. 1, 1882, which was then paid out over a period of months.

  “It was the tenth of May”: Song lyrics and anecdote are in Blanchard, Conquest of Southwest Kansas, p. 76.

  had the plumber leave all the pipes: Author interview with Mark Bureman, then director of the Leavenworth County Historical Society, which is housed in that building, now called Carroll Mansion.

  Fred bought the house from Harvey: The paperwork for the sale, completed Feb. 9, 1884, including the receipts for what the Rushes had spent, is in the scrapbook in DHC.

  “There are not even 20”: Benjamin to Harvey, June 13, 1883, scrapbook, DHC.

  “men without noses”: LVO, April 20, 1885.

  explosion was heard: This recounting of the fire is based on the coverage in the LVO for Jan. 18, 19, and 20, 1884, which consumed pretty much the whole newspaper; Kitty’s vacation plans from LVO, Jan. 14, 1884.

  “required a whole dictionary”: “The Origin,” LVO, Jan. 28, 1884.