One hotel historian: Quoted in Bowman, Montezuma, p. 22.
Fred did not rush: This retelling of Fred’s take on the Montezuma fire is based more on what wasn’t reported than on what was. While many sources claim that Fred was involved with the management of the Montezuma for many years after this fire, I see no evidence for this in any of his records. And the fact that there are no reports in the Leavenworth or Las Vegas papers about him or his people visiting the hotel in the aftermath of the fire convinces me that he had already turned over management of the Hot Springs hotels to the Santa Fe, or used the fire as an excuse to finally do so. In fact, Fred appears to have started pulling back from managing the Hot Springs properties as early as a month after the Montezuma opened, when the May 15, 1882, LVO reported that the railroad’s superintendent in Las Vegas, Pullen, had taken over management of the bathhouse “in place of Fred Harvey whose frequent absence allowed him no chance to properly attend to that department.”
“Come to my home”: Springs Spray, LVO, Jan. 21, 1884.
Bill Phillips, decided it was time: This is also based on what wasn’t reported, since there is no published reporting I know of concerning what happened to Bill Phillips. He simply disappeared from company documents and newspaper coverage.
“the best meal on the road”: Benjamin to Harvey, June 13, 1883, DHC.
Americanizing certain international: This is more my observation of what started happening to the menus after the switch from Phillips to Vizzetti, whose rise is detailed in Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 197.
mentoring the founder’s son: For background on Schermerhorn’s job at Brink’s and his move to Harvey’s employ, see “Byron Schermerhorn: The First President, Businessman, Poet, Civil War Intelligence Agent,” in an undated issue of the Brink’s Company annual report, LCHSC; “Railroad Rebates,” LVO, March 21, 1885; and the 1886 P and L in DHC, where their percentages of the business profits are described.
“reigns over all”: LVO, March 11, 1884, cited in Sheppard, Montezuma, p. 27.
“the handsomest”: Nell Smith to May Harvey, Christmas 1937, HHMC.
“your Crass old”: May Harvey autograph book, signed Jan. 14, 1882, DHC.
award after award: LT, July 1, 1883, p. 8.
CHAPTER 14: ACUTE AMERICANITIS
“I have been looking”: Fred Harvey to Sally Harvey, Feb. 15, 1889, DHC.
“general electrization”: Beard, “Neurasthenia or Nervous Exhaustion.”
“the greater prevalence”: George Miller Beard, American Nervousness, Its Causes and Consequences: A Supplement to Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia) (New York: Putnam, 1881), p. vii.
“no precedent”: Ibid., p. 65.
“it would seem”: Ibid., p. 112.
“The lank and shriveled Yankee”: Medical News, Dec. 30, 1882, p. 737.
“Many years ago I”: Beard, Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion, 2nd ed., p. 184.
“the character of the friends”: Ibid., p. 185.
“I doubt whether there is”: Ibid., p. 242.
special dainty diet: Beebe, Mr. Pullman’s Elegant Palace Car, p. 355; also Beebe, Mansions on Rails, p. 169.
he returned feeling just as sick: “Personal,” LT, Sept. 8, 1883, p. 4.
“Fred, time’s clock”: “A Half-Century Old,” June 27, 1885, handwritten poem in Fred Harvey scrapbook, DHC.
Etruria: Background on ship is from Henry Fry, The History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation (London: S. Low, Marston, 1896), pp. 82–85.
pulled away from: Time of departure is explained in Fred Harvey to Sally. Harvey, July 3, 1885, Gilsey House hotel, DHC.
After nearly a decade: Denis Brian, Pulitzer: A Life (New York: John Wiley. and Sons, 2001), p. 104.
Sally had asked Byron: Schermerhorn mentions this to Fred in his letter, which is written on “Office of Fred Harvey, Leavenworth, KS,” stationery, and dated June 28, 1885, at “The Harvey House,” Fred Harvey scrapbook, DHC.
pressed flowers: This letter, from which the pressed flowers still fall when removed from its envelope, is undated but appears to have been from the trip, DHC.
“As you read I can see”: Schermerhorn to Harvey, June 28, 1885, DHC.
“absolutely fireproof”: Bowman, Montezuma, p. 15, appears to be quoted from Burnham, from a biography of his partner, John Root.
“lots of old friends”: Springs Spray, LVO, Aug. 1, 1885.
apparently triggered: “In Ashes Again,” LVO, Aug. 10, 1885, p. 2.
“found a handful of diamonds”: Springs Spray, LVO, Aug. 11, 1885.
“regained much of his failing health”: Springs Spray, LVO, Aug. 27, 1885.
“very much better”: Springs Spray, LVO, Aug. 31, 1885.
sailed in February 1886: We know this because in Fred Harvey to Sally Harvey, Aug. 24, 1886, DHC, he laments that he has been away from home for seven months.
each with a manager: Estimates of staffing are based on early staff photos, census materials, and lists of Harvey employees who got free train passage.
At a muscular: Descriptions of Ford are from author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr. based on what his father and great-aunt Minnie had told him.
“Ford and the children”: Undated letter from Fred Harvey to Sally Harvey, Hotel Belle Due, Munich, DHC, believed to be from his first long trip to Europe in 1886.
Bulwer-Lytton: In his defense, Sir Edward also coined the less-disparaged phrases “the pen is mightier than the sword,” “the pursuit of the almighty dollar,” and “the great unwashed.”
A mile or so: Author interview with the current engineer of the Southwest Chief, Randy Decker, Sept. 3, 2005.
Ford did have another mentor: It is clear from later warm correspondence between Ford Harvey and Strong that they had been close for a long time.
Cleveland ordered a massive: Background on Cleveland and the trains is from Brodsky, Grover Cleveland, p. 148.
a legal dispute over $27: Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, Oct. 25, 1886, 118 U.S. 557, 7 S.Ct. 4, 30 L.Ed. 244; see sec. 2 for the difference in shipping rates, between $65 and $39.
quickly pushed through Congress: See Stone, Interstate Commerce Commission, p. 6.
pooling: See Johnson and Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation, p. 292.
to one dollar: Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 104.
CHAPTER 15: TRANSCONTINENTAL FRED
always remember going to a parade: Author interview with Byron “Ronny” Harvey III at his nursing home in suburban Boston (which turned out to be the last interview he ever gave), Sept. 2, 2004.
“My Dear Son Byron”: Copy of leaf from an album kept by Byron in CLC, written on Jan. 20, 1887; the torn-off page is marked “Leaf from an album kept by Byron Harvey Sr., who was 11 in 1887. He was taught horseback riding by a veteran of the Indian Wars.”
“Well, Ma”: Fred Harvey to Sally Harvey, n.d., Munich, DHC.
“Meals by Fred Harvey” all the way to California: “The Railroads: Wild Rumors—A. and P. Eatinghouses—the U.P. Coming,” LAT, May 24, 1887, p. 1.
“the people who made”: Monroe, “Reminiscences of the Santa Fe Frontier,” p. 43.
briefly run the eating houses well: Author correspondence with John Sweetser of the California Pacific RR Discussion Group, March 9, 2009; according to digested clippings in his collection, S&L took over the houses on Dec. 1, 1885 (Mohave County Miner, Nov. 29, 1885, p. 3), and within six months they were considered almost as good as Fred’s (Albuquerque Morning Journal, July 6, 1886). But by spring of 1887, there had been fires in Coolidge, Mojave, and Lathrop (Albuquerque Morning Democrat, April 17, 1887) that had crippled their business.
he had such a severe attack: Described in Fred Harvey, April 12–18, 1887, entries, 1887 datebook, DHC.
“With the aid”: SFMag, Feb. 1916, p. 46, cited in Harold L. Henderson, “Harvey,” p. 33.
nearly $100,000: This figure was derived by taking the amount Fred claimed he h
ad invested in the company during a lawsuit in 1891 and the amount he recorded as his investment in the company just before adding these new houses. In the P and L dated Feb. 25, 1887 (scrapbook, DHC), he said the investment as of Jan. 1, 1887, was $42,366.68. In the lawsuit, detailed in Resume of the File in the case of Fred Harvey v. AT&SF RR Co. in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Aug. term, 1891, Bill in Chancery, filed Aug. 6, 1891, DHC, the amount invested was, according to p. 5, “not less than $150,000.”
joined by his daughter: Their trip is detailed in Fred’s 1887 datebook, DHC, starting on June 25.
he went shopping: The receipts for most of these purchases are in the Fred Harvey scrapbook, DHC.
He was not pleased: His comments on these places are in the entries for Oct. 24–Nov. 6, 1887, 1887 datebook, DHC.
face the siege of Chicago: “The Impending Warfare: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Will Soon Reach Chicago,” CT, May 25, 1887, p. 6.
“the handsomest trains”: Boston Globe, May 5, 1888, p. 4; descriptions of the cars themselves are from “Finest in the World,” KCT, April 29, 1888, typescript in Santa Fe railroad files, n.p., KSHSC.
wood-burning heaters: Schafer, Welsh, and Holland, American Passenger Train, p. 74.
“vestibules”: White, American Railroad Passenger Car, p. 450.
They said Strong would build: Rumors of Strong coming to New York are in “A Great Santa Fe Plan: The Road Will Soon Have a Line into New York and Boston,” CT, May 12, 1888, p. 2.
When Ford first started dating: Biographical sketch of Charles Blair and his family is in Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, “Part 8, Bourbon County.”
The courtship of Ford and Judy: Described in detail in Nell Smith to May Harvey, Christmas 1937, HHMC.
didn’t want to convert: This fact is inferred from their actions: We know he did not convert, and even though the Blairs were lifelong Catholics, Ford and Judy were married in Ford’s Episcopal church. For details of the wedding and honeymoon, see “Forever and for Aye,” Leavenworth Evening Standard, May 21, 1888, p. 1 (copy in LCHSC, which also has the wedding invitation).
CHAPTER 16: BITING THE HAND
“a private car and free beer”: Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 206.
“Unless confidence is restored”: “To Borrow Ten Millions,” CT, Oct. 17, 1888.
Times was reporting: “An Unpleasant Situation,” NYT, Nov. 15, 1888, p. 1.
“I almost wish”: Fred Harvey to Sally Harvey, March 9, 1889, DHC.
Nearly 100,000 people: This recreation of the Oklahoma land rush is based on the on-scene reporting of William Willard Howard in “The Rush to Oklahoma,” Harper’s Weekly, May 18, 1889, pp. 391–94.
“giant centipedes with hundreds”: Oklahoma City 8gers Association, Oklahoma, the Beautiful Land (Times-Journal Publishing Company, 1943), pp. 223–24.
It also appears: Details of their contract appear in “Brief History of Santa Fe Fred Harvey Relations,” Aug. 4, 1942, p. 4, DHC; this secret cash payment is inferred from two surviving Fred Harvey P and L statements in DHC from Nov. 1889 and Feb. 1890, in which there is a line item for “AT&SF Investment” listed under “Resources.” The Nov. 1889 balance on this investment from the railroad, from seven months after the deal, was $81,411.90; by Feb., it was down to $79,935.72. The $100,000 is an estimate based on the same computation as explained in the note for page 118.
So was George Pullman: “Gossip from the Railways,” Santa Fe New Mexican, June 15, 1891.
George Washington Kretzinger: See his biography in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: J. T. White, 1904), p. 93.
Mostly, he took the long train rides: Tim Cooper’s career with Fred Harvey is documented in Hugh Gardner, “Saga of Tim W. Cooper: Guiding Personages of the Nationally Famous Fred Harvey System,” Pittsburgh Courier, n.d., but appears to have been published in 1939, Fred Harvey scrapbook, DHC.
seen in the telegraph codes: Fred Harvey, handwritten codebook, page for letter Q, DHC.
“a peculiar character”: Herald story reprinted in Railway Review, Feb. 29, 1888, p. 568.
“at great risk and loss”: Resume of the File in the case of Fred Harvey v. AT&SF RR Co. in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Aug. term, 1891, Bill in Chancery, filed Aug. 6, 1891, pp. 2–3, DHC.
recently bought a second farm: “Old Fred Harvey Ranch House Will Be Razed,” Emporia Gazette, April 5, 1946; and “Fred Harvey Ranch House to Go,” KCT, April 9, 1946.
five thousand meals a day: Amounts are extrapolated from figures in Resume of the File, p. 5.
reported annual earnings: Boston Globe, Dec. 1, 1891, reported for fiscal year ending in June, net income was $9,899,997; capitalization estimate from Bryant, History of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 160.
CHAPTER 17: THE BIGGEST CATERED LUNCH IN AMERICAN HISTORY
in New York, just before heading: According to his notes in a Leavenworth National Bank scratchpad, DHC, that he was using instead of a datebook in 1891–1892, he had just arrived back in the United States and on May 4 traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby, among others, Senator Perkins of Kansas and Senator Brice of Ohio.
collection of Schermerhorn’s poems: The only known copy is in LCHSC.
birth to a baby girl: Nickname, author interviews with Stewart Harvey Jr. and Joy Harvey, also noted in her photo album of a trip to the Grand Canyon in NPSGC
they put in a bid: The planning and execution of these lunches were recreated from “How the Lunches Were Served,” CT, Oct. 22, 1892, and an item in the Leavenworth Evening Standard, Oct. 31, 1892.
Ford made a bet with his father: The bet, including the signatures of Fred and Ford and Dave Benjamin as witness, is recorded in the Leavenworth scratchpad 1891–1892 on a page dated Oct. 7, 1892, DHC.
they decided to team up: “How the Multitude Will Be Fed,” CT, Nov. 2, 1891, p. 8.
fifteen somber, well-dressed: Recreated from NYT coverage of the bankruptcy filing, “The Order of the Court,” Dec. 24, 1893, p. 2.
“to the frontier the American intellect owes”: Turner, “Significance of the Frontier in American History,” p. 37.
welcomed Fred back: The terms of the new agreement between Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe’s receivers are noted in “Brief History of Santa Fe Fred Harvey Relations,” Aug. 4, 1942, p. 4, DHC, contract for Jan. 15, 1894.
snowball fights on the streets of Tucson: “‘The Last Time It Snowed’ in Tucson,” LAT, Feb. 14, 1894, p. 2.
kept rising and rising: “Pueblo Drowned Out: Successive Cloudbursts Cause Havoc, Ruin, and Death,” Washington Post, June 1, 1894, p. 1.
New York Times proclaimed: “Greatest Strike in History: Pullman Boycott Will Involve Scores of Industries, Great Commercial Disaster Threatens,” NYT, July 1, 1894, p. 1.
had met at Fred Harvey’s: Their excursion was covered in “All Out of Doors,” LAT, June 10, 1894, p. 16.
court ruled against Debs: In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895), 158 U.S. 564, In re Debs et al., No. 11, May 27, 1895.
welcome a visit from “mamma”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, May 31, 1895, LCHSC.
Among Fred’s guests: A letter from Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, July 5, 1895, in LCHSC, written from 23 Carlton Road, describes the entire visit and negotiating points. Details of the agreement they finally made are in “Brief of Supplemental Agreement,” Sept. 27, 1895, between A. F. Walker and J. J. McCook, receivers, and Fred Harvey of Leavenworth, copy in DHC.
CHAPTER 18: LET THE BOYS DO IT
“massive of head and features”: Descriptions of Ripley from L. L. Waters, Steel Trails to Santa Fe, p. 343.
Ripley was its passenger: Fred actually had his address listed in his 1875 datebook, DHC.
“we are under no obligation”: Ripley to Aldace Walker (Santa Fe board chairman), Jan. 30, 1896, DHC, describes how Ripley was prepared to sack his old friend; at the end of the letter is typed in Walker’s report of the views of the executive committee.
Ripley initially dictated:
Ripley to Fred Harvey, May 29, 1896, LCHSC.
negotiate a new ten-year deal: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, June 20, 1896, describes the “memorandum of Ripley’s proposition” and says, “I think it is a very fair one;” the power of attorney document, executed on Jan. 9, 1897, is in DHC; details of the deal are in “Brief History of Santa Fe Fred Harvey Relations,” Aug. 4, 1942, pp. 5–6, DHC.
doubled the number of cities: The lists of new locations come from the company master list and time line in DHC.
St. Louis Union Depot: “Secured a Chicago Caterer,” CT, April 18, 1896, p. 9.
serving the dishes: Harvey, Hospitality Cookbook, p. 14; information on separate dining rooms, Porterfield, Dining by Rail, p. 298.
special dining car menu: “The New Santa Fe Flyer,” LAT, Nov. 5, 1895, p. 9.
“interfere with the strictest”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, July 5, 1895, LCHSC.
“The amount you gave him”: Ibid.
“Wet clothes”: Quote from “Recalls Incident on Fred Harvey Ranch,” Emporia Gazette, Feb. 1, 1946; other information on farm is from Emporia Gazette, April 5, 1946.
“fewer white shirts and brains”: “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Emporia Gazette, April 15, 1896.
“The more one sees”: “In the Land of the Plutocrat,” Emporia Gazette, July 6, 1897.
“no smirking, tip-seeking negro”: El Paso Herald, reprinted later in SFMag, Sept. 1910, p. 76.
“We’ll guarantee you”: Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 100.
When a new girl cleared: “‘Harvey Girls’ Long a Part of Kansas City Scene,” KCStar, Feb. 17, 1946, p. 1-C.
“caused a lot of jealousy”: Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 101.
“nearly every single”: Ibid., p. 126.
“is responsible for a great deal”: William Curtis, untitled story, Chicago Record, May 9, 1899, HMC.
“When my father”: Hahn, “Till the Well Runs Dry,” p. 184.
CHAPTER 19: ROUGH RIDDEN
“un-American”: Richard T. Ely, “Pullman: A Social Study,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1885, p. 465.
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