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Moonson - if you want more then the book to read is The Harvey Girls: Women who opened the West - Lesley Poling-Kempes - it is a good history of the business and it has lots of first person accounts of working in the Harvey House system.

From the book: "For a few months it looked as though civilization were going to stop short in her onward march at the capital of Kansas, and that the westward course of empire...would end at the same spot. Travelers positively declined to go further once they had eaten with Fred Harvey. Traffic backed up, and it became necessary for the Santa Fe to open similar houses at other points along its right of way in order that the West might not be settled in just one spot."

Last edited by Robert S. Butler

Here is the CBS Story on the Harvey Girls.......

by: Michelle Miller: CBS News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvOuBBIZxmA

Published on Feb 24, 2019

They were a staple alongside railroad lines across the United States, serving up meals to passengers in what became the first restaurant chain. Founded in 1876, Harvey Houses became renowned for the Harvey Girls, the waitresses who were said to have "tamed the American West," and which inspired a hit MGM musical starring Judy Garland. Michelle Miller looks at the history of the Harvey Girls, whose impact was felt "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe."
Gary: Rail-fan

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