NOTES

PROLOGUE

So when “Red John”: The earliest and best iteration of this often-told Fred story appears in “The Rise of the Harveys” by William Curtis, Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1911, page V19, which features an interview with Charles Brant, the original maître d’ at the Montezuma.

“a food missionary”: This term for Harvey was coined by the New York critic Henry T. Finck in “Ungastronomic America,” Century Magazine, Nov. 1911, and was later expanded into his 1913 book Food and Flavor, pp. 5–7.

years before Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola was invented in 1886, almost a decade after Fred’s chain started, and wasn’t sold outside of Atlanta or bottled on a wide scale until the mid to late 1890s.

Most of the Indian: I have chosen to use the word “Indian” throughout the book—instead of “Native American”—even though there continues to be debate about its political correctness. It is the term that was used during the time I am writing about, and it has certainly come back in style, which is why the new Smithsonian museum is called National Museum of the American Indian.

“More than any single”: Frank Waters, Masked Gods, p. 109.

CHAPTER 1: POT WALLOPER

legal notice appeared: “Law Notices,” Times (London), July 12, 1843, p. 7.

where Fred was baptized: Records at All Souls Church, St. Marylebone, London, show the baptism—number 272 for the year—took place on July 12, 1835. The family’s address was listed as 15 Great Marylebone Street (which is now called New Cavendish Street and the numbers are different).

“with a coachman”: Htapes, no. 5, side B, SHC.

living with his widowed Aunt Mary: 1851 U.K. census, London, Tottenham Parish, p. 15; they lived at 63 High Street.

in the late spring of 1853: All biographies of Fred claim he arrived in 1850, but I have come to the conclusion they’re incorrect. The 1851 U.K. census says he was still in England then, and his entry in the 1900 U.S. census—the only one that asks what year he arrived—clearly says that he first came to America in 1853. Also, Fred became a U.S. citizen in 1858, under a rule that allowed expedited naturalization, after only five years, for people who entered the country before the age of eighteen. Since Fred was always in a hurry, it is more logical that he applied for expedited citizenship as soon as he could, which would have been five years after an arrival in 1853.

avoid being drafted: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr., who said he was told this by Fred’s longtime employee Herman Schweizer.

Washington Street Market reeked: Information on the market comes from The Stranger’s Guide Around New York and Its Vicinity, pp. 21 and 53; and from “How New York Is Fed,” Scribner’s Monthly, Oct. 1877, pp. 729–31.

Smith & McNell’s: Information on Smith & McNell’s is from NYT stories: “Old Hotel to Change Hands,” Sept. 27, 1899; “Market Men’s Inn Has to Raise Prices,” Oct. 4, 1907; “High Prices Down Smith & M’Nell’s,” Dec. 4, 1914; and Topics of the Times, Aug. 11, 1948, p. 22.

“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 re-created 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 re-create 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 this 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 claimedthat 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.

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 re-created 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 round-up”: Strong to Harvey, March 3, 1879, in scrapbook, DHC.

invited the entire town out: This July 4 picnic is re-created 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: Re-created 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 re-creation, 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 re-created 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. Henderson, “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.

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 had 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 re-creation 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: Re-created 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.

a tomb impervious: Details of Pullman’s grave from “Lies in Solid Rock,” CT, Oct. 24, 1897, p. 24.

disinherited his twin sons: “Cut Off with Income of $3000 Each,” Boston Globe, Oct. 28, 1897, p. 3; and “Disinherited,” LAT, Oct. 28, 1897, p. 1.

his personal barber: “Pullman’s Barber Shut Out,” NYT, Dec. 16, 1898, p. 1.

Smart, direct, and sometimes stunningly: Descriptions of Minnie Harvey are from the vivid recollections of her great-nephew Stewart Harvey Jr., from author interviews, and from photographs of her in LCHSC.

John Huckel: Huckel used his first name, John, but was more often referred to by his middle name, Fred. But since it is hard enough to keep track of Fred, his son Ford, and his son Freddy already, I’m referring to him as John. Biographical information comes from his obituaries: “Death of J. F. Huckel,” KCT, March 27, 1936; NYT, March 28, 1936, p. 15; and “John F. Huckel, Fred Harvey Official, Passes Away,” SFMag, May 1936, pp. 15–16.

a health crisis: Author interview with Joy Harvey, wife of the late Byron “Ronny” Harvey III—she recalled hearing this from Kitty Harvey.

whose namesake niece: “Birthday Party,” LT, July 2, 1881, p. 4.

“cowboy cavalry”: “Teddy’s Terrors: Cowboy Cavalry Regiment Going to Cuba; the Men Who Are Being Enlisted Are Rough Riders, Dead Shots, and Fearless Fighters,” LAT, April 28, 1898, p. 3.

“benevolent assimilation”: From McKinley’s order to the secretary of war, Dec. 27, 1898, reprinted in NYT, Jan. 6, 1899, p. 1.

“A splendid little war”: Hay to Roosevelt, July 27, 1898 (just before he was named secretary of state). See William Roscoe Thayer, John Hay: In Two Volumes (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915), p. 337; the “turkey shoot” quote credited to a Seaman Cross from the battleship Oregon.

As the Rough Riders’ train: Roosevelt’s visit is re-created from coverage in the NYT, CT, and LAT, as well as “Roosevelt There: Rain Ruined Decorations at Las Vegas,” Santa Fe New Mexican, June 24, 1899, and “Rough Riders Grand Reunion,” Albuquerque Daily Citizen, June 26, 1899.

“almost lifted bodily”: “Teddy’s Coming,” LAT, June 25, 1899, p. B1.

Harvey Girls wore special outfits: Author interview with Leslie F. Loewe, retired chairman and CEO of Angelica Corporation; and Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 56.

Williams sent the spoon: “Was F. Harvey’s Spoon,” LT, June 13, 1900, p. 4, reprinted from St. Louis Democrat; actual letter from Williams is in DHC along with typescript of this article and a Jan. 27, 1900, letter to Fred from John C. Burrowes, the superintendent for dining cars for the Southern Railway, to whom the spoon was apparently first sent.

CHAPTER 20: THE CLUTCHES OF THE GRIM MONSTER

“Frederick Harvey Ill”: “Frederick Harvey Ill at Streatham,” NYT, Oct. 15, 1899, p. 1.

most renowned medical authority: There have been numerous references to Harvey being treated by “one of the most eminent surgeons” (in the words of Dan Anthony in the LT), but nobody named the doctor. It had to be Frederick Treves, who was, at that time, not only the world’s most famous surgeon but also the world authority on exactly what was wrong with Fred. Besides this circumstantial evidence, there is one hard fact—-just after Fred’s surgery, his treatment was transferred to another London physician, a transfer that corresponds to Treves quitting his private practice to go treat soldiers in the Boer War.

written the textbook: Information on Treves from Stephen and Lee, Dictionary of National Biography, p. 857; and Trombley, Sir Frederick Treves, esp. pp. 80–83, from which the quotes are taken.

was reporting that Fred: “Railroad Record,” LAT, Oct. 25, 1899, p. 9.

“Fred Harvey Not Dead”: Santa Fe New Mexican, Oct. 27, 1899, p. 1.

tethered permanently: Htapes, no. 7, side B: “He had a colostomy, which my father [Byron Harvey, Fred’s son] told me all about and he was scared to death—my father had the same thing.”

“even a teaspoonful”: Fred’s graphic descriptions of his pain and physical problems are in letters to Ford Harvey, Feb. 23, March 6 and 10, April 3 and 6, 1900, LCHSC. The March 6 letter is particularly interesting because it has a note at the end written to Ford by what appears to be Fred’s sister Eliza (who appears to have also been the actual writer of the letters, presumably dictated to her by Fred).

“I think if Mamma”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, April 6, 1900, LCHSC.

“sometimes I feel hopeful”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, Feb. 23, 1900, LCHSC.

“The pain, Mother”: These Edison Cylinders still exist at LCHSC, but so far nobody has been able to make a modern transfer of the sound on them. This quote is from Michael Quinn, a photo researcher at NPSGC, who is the only living person known to have actually heard what was on the cylinders—from a reel-to-reel tape the company had made decades ago when the cylinders still played. The tape had been lost for years; urged on by me and others, Quinn finally found it mislabeled in the NPS archive, and then various historians at southwestern institutions with an interest in Fred Harvey, led by Karen Underhill at CLC, paid to have a restoration attempted on the tape. It, too, failed, although the restorers did believe they heard Fred croak out the word “Mother.” For now, we’ll have to rely on Michael’s memory.

In one of the last pictures: In HHMC.

“the first moment”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, Aug. 21, 1900, on Chicago Beach Hotel stationery, LCHSC.

“Your words and actions”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, Aug. 23, 1900, LCHSC.

“If you can impress upon her”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, Aug. 21, 1900, LCHSC.

spontaneous, tax-evading “gifts”: Explained in a six-page letter in DHC, dated June 28, 1900, from Leavenworth and addressed to Ford and Dave Benjamin. It notes, “My wife joins me in these gifts to our children and approves of, in evidence of which her signature to these instructions accompanies my own below.”

“unless mamma and you object”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, telegram, Sept. 7, 1900, LCHSC.

“The Chinese doctor is not”: Ford Harvey to Fred Harvey, Sept. 8, 1900, LCHSC.

“Have seen Chinese”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, telegram, Sept. 9, 1900, LCHSC.

“the most sprightly invalid”: Fred Harvey to Ford Harvey, Oct. 3, 1900, Wellington Hotel, LCHSC.

“It was a delightful surprise”: Visit detailed in Strong to Ford Harvey, Oct. 24, 1900, LCHSC.

Dave was riding from Houston: This scene in Galveston is re-created from “From the Stricken City,” KCStar, Sept. 15, 1900, p. 1—which I first learned about in Larson, Isaac’s Storm, pp. 159–63, on which I also relied. Details of the building come from a previous Galveston Daily Newsstory, Feb. 14, 1897, n.p.

Fred came to Leavenworth: Fred’s movements over the last weeks are detailed in “Fred Harvey at Point of Death,” LT, Feb. 7, 1901, p. 4.

headed to Southern California: Details are in “Southern California by Towns and Counties: Pasadena; Rev. Mr. Hobart Accepts Call of Baptists, Wind-Up of Tournament of Roses Affairs,” LAT, Jan. 7, 1901, p. 11.

California had become a major Fred: According to company datelines in DHC, the ferryboat restaurants opened in 1900, and the operation at the Ferry Building in 1901.

knew that their leader: This is based on how the company has always operated, letters to Fred from employees wishing him good health (in DHC and LCHSC), and what reportedly happened when other key members of the Harvey family died, particularly Ford.

dry, cracking lips: This was a common end-of-life treatment even then, see Thornton, “Treatment of Uterine Fibro-myoma” p. 863.

“Fred Harvey lies”: “Fred Harvey at Point of Death,” p. 4.

“Father passed away peacefully”: A copy of the telegram sent to William Strong, affixed to a copy of Fred’s 1880 portrait, is in DHC. It is unclear if this is actually Strong’s copy—returned to Ford after his death—or an extra.

“Fred Harvey … has done more”: William Allen White’s obit from the Gazette was reprinted in LT, Feb. 14, 1901, p. 2.

“in many ways”: “Fred Harvey Will Probated Yesterday,” LT, Feb. 16, 1901, p. 4; also copy of will in DHC.

“to be greatly in excess”: “Fred Harvey’s Estate Worth Over a Million,” LAT, Feb. 16, 1901, p. 1.

“will be conducted just as it was”: “Fred Harvey Will Probated Yesterday.”

CHAPTER 21: A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WILDERNESS

self-appointed “Apostle”: Information on Lummis’s background comes from Thompson, American Character, and author correspondence with Thompson.

Ford met up with the Ripley: This trip is re-created from “Lummis Acted as Guide in Wonderland,” LAT, Oct. 31, 1901, p. 12, for which Lummis was either the main source or the uncredited author, as well as Lummis’s own journal entries about the trip, which are in the Autry National Center of the American West and were translated for me (he wrote in English and Spanish) by research associate Manolo Madrid. Also, Lummis wrote a two-part story about the trip, “A Week of Wonders,” in his magazine Land of Sunshine 15 (June–Dec. 1901), pp. 315 and 425. His photos from the trip are also in the Autry collection.

“a G-string”: Lummis, “Week of Wonders,” p. 327.

controversial relic hunter: Information on Wetherill and the Hyde Exploring Expedition is from Snead, Ruins and Rivals, pp. 31–64.

“Ours has been”: Cited in Hughes and Priehs, In the House of Stone and Light, p. 28 n. 16. The Grand Canyon history section is re-created from parts of this book; Stephen Pyne’s provocative 1998 book, How the Canyon Became Grand, a repackage of his 1982 scholarly book Dutton’s Point;and Neumann, On the Rim.

The Santa Fe offered Moran: Moran’s relationships with the railroads are recreated from Wilkins, Thomas Moran; Bryant, History of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 120; and also Bryant’s article “The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and the Development of the Taos and Santa Fe Art Colonies,” p. 437.

“the Divine Abyss”: Quoted in Hughes and Priehs, In the House of Stone and Light, p. 58, citing John Burroughs, “The Divine Abyss,” in Time and Change (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912), p. 49. Muir himself had actually been fearful when he first heard the railroad was building a line to the canyon, but later changed his mind, writing in 1902, “When I saw those trains crawling along through the pines of the Coconino Forest and close up to the brink of the chasm at Bright Angel, I was glad to discover that in the presence of such stupendous scenery they are nothing. The locomotives and trains are mere beetles and caterpillars, and the noise they make is as little disturbing as the hooting of an owl in the lonely woods.” The Writings of John Muir (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), p. 348.

When Ford looked into the Divine Abyss: While some of this interior monologue is extrapolated from later events and insights from Ford’s obituaries, the best example of Ford discussing his obsession with the canyon appeared in “How One Man Conducts Sixty-six Hotels,” Leslie’s Illustrated, Feb. 27, 1913, HMC.

“You want to put the hotel”: Lummis diary for Oct. 28, 1901, recounts this scene.

CHAPTER 22: THE FRED HARVEY INDIAN DEPARTMENT

Minnie was thrilled: While Minnie’s actions were generally behind-the-scenes and undocumented, she is credited for instigating the Indian Department in Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 120.

Ford wasn’t sure: Ford explained his unsureness about various retail adventures that John Huckel pushed the company into in an unpublished manuscript dated July 19, 1927, marked “For system” in company files, HMC. “We walked around the idea a good many times before we went into the business of selling Indian goods and curios.”

“Once Harvey women”: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.

Schweizer was like a character: Background on Schweizer comes from Howard, “‘A Most Remarkable Success’;” and Fergusson, Our Southwest, pp. 199–201.

tiny Harvey House in Navajo: This was first located in Coolidge, New Mexico, where this incident took place, but the eating house was later moved twenty miles west to Gallup.

“bald-headed man”: Howard and Pardue, Inventing the Southwest, p. 12.

he was the first to order: Adair described this in his book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths, pp. 25–26; and Howard quotes a personal interview with Adair in “‘A Most Remarkable Success,’” p. 88.

He had trouble adjusting: This insight is based on the obvious friction between the men in the tone of their career-long correspondence.

“America’s Orient”: This provocatively loaded term was coined by cultural historian Barbara Babcock, in “A New Mexican ‘Rebecca,’” p. 406.

who apparently had been recommended: Grattan, Mary Colter, p. 6. Biographical information on Colter is largely drawn from this book and Berke, Mary Colter, and author correspondence with Berke.

“An incomprehensible woman in pants”: Frank Waters, Masked Gods, p. 111.

“Herman stood in front”: Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 201.

“He just had room after”: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“Fred Harvey saw the value”: Amsden, Navaho Weaving, p. 35, quoted in Fergusson, Our Southwest, p. 201.

“as handsome and inviting”: Quoted in Howard and Pardue, Inventing the Southwest, p. 16, from Hudson letters dated Feb. 6 and 7, 1903.

some five thousand pieces: Albuquerque Journal Democrat, May 11, 1902.

“staged authenticity”: This phrase, used to critique different types of tourist experiences, was coined by sociologist Dean MacCannell in 1973.

Elle of Ganado: She and her husband, Tom, are profiled in Howard and Pardue, Inventing the Southwest, pp. 60–61.

Then text began to emerge: This re-creation of her weaving comes from the photo taken of her during the process. Ibid., p. 60.

He was whisked: Coverage of Roosevelt’s appearance in Albuquerque, NYT, May 6, 1903, p. 3.

saddled white stallion: Described in Chappell, “The Railway at Grand Canyon,” n.p.

“The only word I can use for it”: Roosevelt’s visit is re-created from “President Visits an Awful Place,” LAT, May 7, 1903, p. 1 (which includes full text of his speech), and notes from Charles Lummis’s diary for this day, from the Autry National Center for the American West collection.

“further back from the rim”: Coconino Sun, June 5, 1903.

CHAPTER 23: TENTH LEGION

“the Tenth Legion”: This scene is re-created from a later KCStar story—one of the first for which a journalist was allowed access to Fred Harvey offices to see normal daily operations—“Taking the Harvey System Apart to See What Makes It Tick,” March 29, 1914, which included the dialogue; the “Tenth Legion” reference comes from “Intimate Glimpses of Fred Harvey Personalities: Frank Clough,” SFMag Oct. 1936, p. 40.

tiny toads found their way: Story recounted years later in Corb Sarchet, “Toads in Coffee Cups Greeted Customers of Harvey House,” Wichita Morning Eagle, marked “1953,” but no date, HMC.

was now buying and serving: These statistics, which appear in various turn-of-the-century stories, appear to have originated in Leigh Mitchell Hodges’s article in the May 5, 1905, Philadelphia North American, but there is also a 1908 internal list, “Estimates of Supplies During the Year 1908 on Entire System,” in DHC that reconfirms them.

sparked a huge controversy: “Olive Oil—a Manufacturer Claims That the California Product Is Equal or Superior to the Imported Article,” LAT, July 17, 1903, p. 6.

“the multiplication table”: “Taking the Harvey System Apart.”

Samuel Crumbine: This incident is recounted in Crumbine’s memoir, Frontier Doctor, pp. 74–75.

“titular head of the dining car operation”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“My father didn’t know”: Htapes, no. 6, side B.

He teamed with the new American powerhouse: See Stechschulte, Detroit Publishing Company Postcards, pp. 333–35.

“peculiarly lacking”: IND, Nov. 27, 1915, p. 5.

A handful of eastern entrepreneurs: Background on William and Samuel Childs is from Landmarks Preservation Commission Report, Feb. 4, 2003, for the former Childs restaurant building at 2102 Boardwalk in Brooklyn, p. 2, www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/childs.pdf; on Horn and Hardart, see “Meet Me at the Automat,” Smithsonian, Aug. 2001.

In a very cozy arrangement: The Huckels lived at 3530 Locust Street; the Benjamins at 3620 Gillham (where they lived with Dave’s bachelor brother, Alfred).

“His employees who do their work”: “How One Man Conducts Sixty-six Hotels,” Leslie’s Illustrated, Feb. 27, 1913, n.p., HMC.

“instruct our people always”: Ford Harvey, unpublished manuscript, July 19, 1927, pp. 10–11, HMC, emphasis added.

developing a running list: This list is digested from various writings of Ford’s meant to help employees understand company ethos, including Ibid.; undated manuscript, presumably written in the early 1920s, apparently for American Magazine, UA, box 3, file 16, p. 6, HMC; and “Ideals Applied to Buying at Fred Harvey’s,” from his address at the National Restaurant Association convention in 1925, published in Restaurant News and Management, Nov. 1925, pp. 13–15.

CHAPTER 24: ON THE VERY BRINK OF THE DIZZY GULF

the government wouldn’t even take it for free: Correspondence is in the Santa Fe collection, box 130, KSHSC.

Voth had converted: See Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture? which opens with a scathing indictment (pp. 11–15) of Voth’s intrusions.

“whittling bows and arrows”: “Prisoner of 18 Years: Geronimo, the Bloodthirsty Indian,” Boston Globe, Sept. 18, 1904, p. SM12.

after seeing a Fred Harvey promotional display: For more details on Hearst’s collecting, see the introductory essay in Blomberg, Navajo Textiles.

“My Dear Mr. Schweizer”: An undated letter in HMC, presumably from Dec. 1905, includes all these quotations. Interestingly, ten years later Hearst did end up forcing Schweizer to accept newspaper coverage for a $6,861.90 ($154,000) bill he ran up at Hopi House and refused to pay. As detailed in a Dec. 2008 article about Harvey public relations by Patricia Curtin in the Journal of Communication Management, both Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe were so mortified by the episode that they made sure the resulting double-page spread on the Grand Canyon in the San Francisco Examiner on May 2, 1915, mentioned neither company’s name.

“I will bet you two huge”: Hearst to Schweizer, n.d., early 1911, cited in Blomberg, Navajo Textile, p. 12.

ultimate Fred Harvey oasis: Details on El Tovar are from the company publication El Tovar: Grand Canyon of Arizona, and Berke, Mary Colter, pp. 60–70.

“to see how the world”: Advertisement in CT, Nov. 26, 1904, p. 11.

one of his father’s favorite: Background on Charlie Brant is from his obituary, “Charlie Brant Has Gone,” SFMag, Jan. 1922, pp. 23–30.

“rimming”: Ernest Kolb interview tape is GRCA 36063, transcript, p. 55, NPSGC.

“Stop your jiggling”: Ibid., p. 51.

“Reared upon the very brink”: “El Tovar, the Magnificent New Santa Fe Hotel on Brink of Grand Canyon,” LAT, Aug. 18, 1905, p. 116.

CHAPTER 25: TRAINIACS

“to let some other man”: “Scott Is Making Up Time,” KCStar, July 10, 1905, p. 5.

“dude food”: Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 281.

“Porterhouse Steak”: Onboard menu from L. L. Waters, Steel Trails to Santa Fe, p. 390.

“An American cowboy”: Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 391.

“Any man who can cook”: “Scott Is Making Up Time.”

But in 1905, the nation’s railroads: See Roy and Bonacich, “Interlocking Directorates,” p. 368.

“private varnish”: Beebe, Mansions on Rails, app. pp. 373–76.

“It was a great deal to us kids”: Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 133.

“To be ‘nice’”: Ripley to Ford Harvey, Oct. 31, 1913, DHC.

“are being gradually strangled”: Ripley to Colonel William Nelson (publisher of the KCStar), Oct. 7, 1910, copied to Ford, in HMC.

Dave Benjamin was in San Francisco: “David Benjamin Telephones Calmly as Earthquake Showers Plaster,” KCJP, March 12, 1933, n.p., HMC.

“This is about the only time”: “Fought Hard to Save the Ferry,” Washington Post, April 22, 1906, p. 1.

Ford and Dave put the finishing touches: See “Harvey Agreement,” Jan. 10, 1911; there are copies in DHC and AKC.

heard he had a girlfriend: Htapes, no. 8, side A.

“He was a handsome”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

personal notes were discovered: Daggett and Ellie Harvey found them, with me, when we went through their Fred Harvey holdings.

“I want you so”: Judy Harvey to Ford Harvey, Oct. 11, no year, DHC.

“I will be thinking of you darling”: Judy Harvey to Ford Harvey, n.d., presumably May 1908, Waldorf-Astoria stationery, DHC.

its best year ever: This according to two sources in JKC, one an income table from 1896–1912, in the Santa Fe collection, file 31, KSHSC; the other from a company ledger for the Harvey Hotel & Restaurant Company.

CHAPTER 26: KANSAS CITY STARS

substantial advances: These are documented, along with the rest of the finances of the estate, in the Final Report by Trustees of Fred Harvey Estate, Jan. 26, 1911, p. 3; May had withdrawn $37,400 ($842,000), copy in DHC.

women should not own stock: Htapes, no. 7, side A.

lend him the money: “Harvey Agreement,” Jan. 10, 1911, p. 6, DHC.

which made Dave uncomfortable: This insight comes from an unsigned affidavit prepared by Dave Benjamin in Dec. 1920, a copy of which is in AKC. It appears that when Dave started looking into selling his shares after the war, he found they weren’t valued as high as he thought they should be.

now bring his Airedale: Htapes, no. 2, side A.

several of these wannabe firms: “A Fount of Railway Food,” KCStar, Dec. 24, 1911 (n.p., but p. 174 in MVSC bound volume), details the companies.

“there won’t be any better”: Harry Benjamin to the St. Louis Star, Oct. 20, 1912.

“Ford is in all things”: IND, July 4, 1914, p. 7.

From the resort town: See stamps on their immigration document “Legation of the United States of America,” which also details what Dave looked like (Nose: “Long”), which is in AKC (along with photos from the trip).

“incalculable hardship”: “Six Ships Relieve Crush of Tourists,” NYT, Aug. 2, 1914, p. 3.

massive humidors: Information on humidors and employees, and long quote about the kitchens in the new station, are from “In Station Cafe, 170 Helpers,” KCStar, Oct. 29, 1914, p. 2.

“Tell Shep to come here”: “Shepard Smith, a Famous Frisco Engineer for Forty-two Years—Retired June 30,” Frisco Employes’ Magazine, July 1926, p. 8.

an enterprising journalist later: Jeffrey Spivak explores this in Kansas City Union Station (Kansas City Star Books, 1999), pp. 57–58.

“many Kansas Citians”: This and other details of opening day are from KCStar coverage, Nov. 2, 1914, p. 22 of the bound clipping volume in MVSC.

helped create a national best-seller: Marshall, Santa Fe, p. 110.

CHAPTER 27: NATIONAL PARKING

“What a bunker”: From coverage of the billionaire special, “Wealth Visits Grand Canyon,” LAT, March 29, 1910, p. 19.

“It would be exceedingly inappropriate”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1911, p. 15.

“Gentlemen, you are not”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1915, p. 21.

“wide, safe, dustless”: Quoted in Weigle and Babcock, Great Southwest, p. 18.

“All classes of people”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1915, p. 23.

“For the first class”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1917, p. 324.

“We took a Packard”: Ibid., pp. 323–25.

“In my opinion”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1915, p. 23.

“Scenery is a splendid thing”: See Albright and Schenck, Creating the National Park Service, pp. 51 and 54–55.

“You know how”: Ben Weller, “West We Go: Canyon Country,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug. 30, 1998, p. 1G.

“From the time a tourist arrives”: “Guides Fight for Customers,” Washington Post, Jan. 7, 1917, p. 8.

“You can’t imagine”: Grattan, Mary Colter, p. 26.

“the most palatial”: “Hearst Seeks Senate,” NYT, Feb. 10, 1914, p. 1.

“variegated vagabondizing”: Twain, Roughing It, p. 28.

“Down a winding footpath”: Irvin S. Cobb, Roughing It De Luxe (New York: George H. Doran, 1914), pp. 41–44.

“Europe is Closed”: SFMag, n.d., sometime in early 1915, p. 58, KSHSC.

budget of more than $160,000: See John Huckel to Schweizer, March 7, 1935, HMC, which includes a breakdown of expenses for San Diego.

Although the San Diego fair: Much of my re-creation of behind the scenes at this fair is based on reporting in Bokovoy, San Diego World’s Fairs.

“the color of evil”: Post, By Motor to the Golden Gate, p. 165.

“Stopping at the various Harvey”: Ibid., pp. 160–63.

over 150,000: Ford actually said 116,000 in his talk, but a forestry official at the canyon said he was only counting those who checked into Harvey establishments and the real number was over 150,000.

“I have heard personally”: Proceedings of the National Parks Conference, 1917, p. 323.

“It is true that one finds”: “War Has Taught Americans Who Have Traveled Abroad This Is the Land of the Best,” Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 6, 1916, p. B4.

CHAPTER 28: DARING YOUNG FREDDY & HIS FLYING MACHINES

246 “the funny papers”: Freddy Harvey to Ford Harvey, postcard, n.d., etching of Dresden, DHC.

“I was very frightened”: Shand-Tucci, Crimson Letter, p. 228, describing an interview Townsend did with gay activist Randy Wicker.

“born flyer”: Noted in Bingham, Explorer in the Air Service, p. 10.

“We lacked men of experience”: Ibid., p. xii and p. 10.

“with as much calmness”: IND, Nov. 24, 1911, p. 8.

“It’s the greatest sport”: “Harvey Flies Here Today,” KCStar, Nov. 18, 1917, p. 3-A.

“two leather-rigged, behooded”: “Many Watch Big Biplane,” KCT, Nov. 19, 1917, p. 4.

“very expert bird man”: IND, Nov. 24, 1917, p. 8.

“The Three Bombardiers”: Collins, Tales of an Old Air-Faring Man, p. 6.

Ford was summoned: Described by Hines in his memoir, War History of American Railroads, p. 89; also Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 240. This section is also based on McAdoo’s memoir, Crowded Years.

“proven in federal court”: See Falconer, “Segregation of Delinquent Women and Girls as a War Problem.”

“one immoral girl”: All material from this study can be found in Purcell-Guild, “Study of One Hundred and Thirty-one Delinquent Girls.”

“forfeited their claims”: See Additon, “Work Among Delinquent Women and Girls,” p. 152.

powerful tenor voice: Scene recounted in “Indian’s Song Wins Red Cross Dollars,” KCJP, May 27, 1918, p. 8.

His squadron’s performance: “New York Hosts Stage Greatest Freedom March,” CT, July 5, 1917, p. 14; and “Airplanes over City Fly in Battle Lines,” NYT, July 5, 1918, p. 20.

His departure was delayed: Details of Freddy’s medical procedure and the family’s reaction to his orders to ship out are from Ford Harvey to Byron Harvey, Sept. 18, 1918, DHC.

“Bring out your dead”: Barry, Great Influenza, p. 5.

“was so greatly appreciated”: Bingham, Explorer in the Air Service, p. 10.

“How are you”: Dialogue from story in IND, Feb. 22, 1919, p. 8.

“greatest living railroad man”: “Edw. P. Ripley Dies,” NYT, Feb. 5, 1920, p. 9.

Arequipa: Description of the estate and its background comes from a LAT real estate listing decades later: Ruth Ryon, “Seeing Action in Beverly Hills,” May 10, 1998, p. K-1.

“a short siesta”: “Death Call for Edward P. Ripley,” LAT, Feb. 5, 1920, p. 11.

CHAPTER 29: SOROPTIMISTAS

“Never in their wildest expectations”: IND, Feb. 15, 1919, p. 4.

“emptying garbage”: “Society Serves Working Girls,” KCStar, Feb. 6, 1919, p. 1.

“the newspapers never get hold of”: IND, March 1, 1919, p. 6.

twelve hundred had reportedly quit: This comes from “A Shortage of Table Girls,” an undated clipping reportedly found in the collection of Flora Alice Steele, a relative of the Harvey personnel manager Alice Steele, according to Stoll, “Harvey Girls Then, Now, and Forever,” p. 71.

“a girl herself”: This is noted in a profile of Steele: Frances L. Garside, “This Woman Hires All Girls for Fred Harvey Restaurants,” Hartford Courant, May 13, 1923, p. SM6.

“The girls at a Fred Harvey Place”: This is from a 1905 testimonial written by well-known orator Elbert Hubbard and originally published in his Roycrofters magazine—although later published by the railroad as a promotional piece. It is frequently referred to by historians as “Fred Harvey’s eulogy,” which it was not. In fact, it may have been something of an advertorial since, by that time in his career, Hubbard was taking some commissions for his over-the-top assessments of American phenomena. See Beisner, “‘Commune’ in East Aurora.”

“Today’s girl is ‘glorifying’”: See the profile of Steele: “Modern Business Girl Less Superficial Than First to Invade Field,” KCJP, Nov. 20, 1927, n.p.

“A girl who is lonely”: Garside, “This Woman Hires All Girls.”

“I was dressed real nice”: Stinelichner’s story comes from her quotes in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 82 and p. 94.

“Silver City Millie”: Background on Millie’s story is from Evans, Madam Millie, pp. 13–24.

including one who is gay himself: Author correspondence with Arnold Berke.

clarity about her sexuality: Several living family members confirmed that Kitty was openly gay, especially the one who was closest to her, Byron “Ronny” Harvey III, who spent the most time with her and her girlfriends.

“Living Reproductions”: Details from “Society in Picture Poses,” KCStar, Sept. 17, 1911.

She was just a teenager: Many details on the life of Kitty Harvey, who was covered a lot in the society pages for her good works and travels, but almost never for her relationship to the Harvey company, come from the only long story ever published about her, “Publicity Shy Katherine Harvey, After Many Years of Doing Things for City, Now Permanent Resident,” Santa Barbara New Press, Aug. 5, 1951, n.p., file RC39(11)949, HMC.

“We’ll warm their trousers”: Author interview with Ronny Harvey, Sept. 2, 2004, for this and the quotations about Kitty and Mary Perkins below.

linking him romantically: Information about the Drage family comes from myriad small stories in the Kansas City social newspaper, IND (most of which don’t have titles, but just run as items), and a profile of Betty’s mother, Lucy Christie Drage, in the KCStaron Sept. 22, 1929, p. 34 in the MVSC newspaper archive for that year.

“the rumor of pretty little Betty”: IND, April 15, 1922, p. 4.

“got as far as the door”: IND, April 29, 1922, p. 4.

“failed to cure”: IND, July 1, 1922, p. 3.

“magnificent, with few duplicates”: Report on the gifts and the thank-you notes is in IND, Sept. 9, 1922, p. 8.

“the big white stork”: IND, Feb. 10, 1923, p. 3.

CHAPTER 30: THE ROAR OF THE TWENTIES

If you were a close friend: These parties were documented in a letter from Freddy’s friend Frank Baker to Daggett Harvey Sr., March 1, 1976, DHC.

two silent pictures: Plot analysis of these two hard-to-see silent films comes from Leah Dilworth’s provocative essay “Discovering Indians in Fred Harvey’s Southwest,” in Weigle and Babcock, Great Southwest, p. 159.

“The biggest thrill”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 127.

“All the girls knew who he was”: Opal Sells Hill, quoted in Ibid., p. 142.

“What’s that Carole Lombard is wearing”: “On the Side with E. V. Durling,” LAT, Oct. 2, 1938.

“Diamond-Studded Toothbrush”: The clipping—which is undated but presumably from the early fall of 1924, is in DHC, along with the exasperated letter that Ford wrote to Byron about it on Oct. 2, 1924.

company’s bizarre battle: Details of Campbell Russell’s crusade against Fred Harvey’s jacket rule come primarily from coverage in the hometown Daily Oklahoman on Sept. 4 and 28, 1921, and the national coverage it generated (clippings of most of which are in HMC).

“discrimination”: “State Commission Decrees Men May Eat Minus Coats,” Washington Post, Sept. 16, 1921, p. 3.

“Women do as they please”: “Man in Shirt Sleeves,” CT, Sept. 17, 1921, p. 6.

“snobbery from England”: “The Weekly Grouch,” Frederick (Okla.) Press, Sept. 29, 1921, n.p. 276 “ruthless warfare”: Daily Oklahoman, Sept. 4, 1921, p. 7.

“take all the dogs”: Hominy News, Sept. 30, 1921.

“Unlike the lower animals”: Fred Harvey et al. v. Corporation Commission, 1924 OK 716, 229, p. 428, 102 Okla. 266, case number 12963, decided Sept. 16, 1924, Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

even historic Delmonico’s closed: For details on these closings, see “Delmonico’s Ends Its Long Career,” NYT, May 20, 1923, p. 1; and John Walker Harrington, “Death Marks the Cabarets,” NYT, June 3, 1923, p. XX2.

locked away or sold off: Author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr.

innovate with food: For background on how food service changed during Prohibition, see Drowne and Huber, 1920s, esp. pp. 129–35; Hogan, Selling ’Em by the Sack: and Langdon, Orange Roofs, Golden Arches.

“They’re coming tonight”: Advertisement in LAT, April 17, 1902, p. 5.

seven thousand employees: Noted by Ford in undated manuscript, presumably written in the early 1920s, apparently for American Magazine, UA, box 3, file 16, p. 3, HMC.

“I would rather be Alfred”: From obituary, KCStar, Dec. 14, 1924, pp. 111–12 of MVSC bound volume.

head off to the local airfield: As he did in El Paso on June 21, 1922, as reported the next day in the El Paso Times in “Fred Harvey ‘Hops Off in Army Plane for Sightseeing Trip of El Paso Shortly After Arrival” (which also noted that when he and Betty had dinner, the hotel orchestra “announced the naming of the ‘Fred Harvey fox trot’ in his honor and the restaurant baron was presented with an author’s copy of the piece”).

Byron had received a patent: It was patent number 1,491,234, issued April 22, 1924; a year later, he also patented a “Transcontinental Car,” which was a club car with a central serving area allowing for separate first-class and tourist-class “lounging comfort,” which was patent number 1,523,642. The scale model was described in author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

CHAPTER 31: SANTA FATED

“City Different”: Tobias and Woodhouse, Santa Fe, p. 178.

R. Hunter Clarkson: The story of Clarkson and the beginnings of the Santa Fe operation are detailed in Thomas’s obsessive Southwestern Indian Detours.

first practical process for freezing food: After Clarence Birdseye tried to get Fred Harvey and other companies to try his frozen concoctions, his company went bankrupt and was reorganized; it was later bought by the Postum conglomerate, which changed its name to the one Clarence had been using, General Foods.

shop for a suitable hotel: Noted in an unpublished family history by the historian Bertha Dutton, who also sat on the board of the Fred Harvey art trust, p. 25, LCHSC.

“Pullmans on wheels”: Ibid.

Before departing: Judy Harvey’s ill-fated trip to Detour country is re-created from “Death Comes Suddenly to Mrs. Harvey,” Santa Fe New Mexican, July 22, 1926; “Late Mrs. Ford Harvey Was Daughter of Pioneer of Kansas; Bishop’s Tribute,” Santa Fe New Mexican, July 24, 1926; and “Mrs. Ford F. Harvey Dies,” KCStar, July 22, 1926 (n.p., all from corporate clipping file in HMC).

to visit the Puye Cliff Dwellings: Published reports did not name the precise location they were visiting when Judy got sick, just that it was “an Indian Village forty miles from Santa Fe.” Puye, which was on the Indian Detours, is the most likely site.

bleary-eyed: The time of death, and the fact that Ford was with her until the end, were reported in “Death Comes Suddenly to Mrs. Harvey.”

“was as simple as that”: “Mrs. Ford F. Harvey Dies.”

government’s first transcontinental: Route 66 was actually the second transcontinental highway—the first, privately funded, was the Lincoln Highway in 1913, which ran from New York to San Francisco, following the Union Pacific’s route through Nebraska, Utah, and Nevada. Details on Route 66 history are from Olsen, Route 66 Lost and Found, p. 98. Interestingly, Route 66 was rerouted in 1938, and the new route bypassed Santa Fe, just as the railroad’s High Iron had.

CHAPTER 32: A WONDERFUL LIVE TOY TO PLAY WITH

“The Southwest is the great”: D. H. Lawrence, “Just Back from the Snake Dance—Tired Out,” Laughing Horse, Sept. 1924, pp. 26–29.

“Indian detour couriers are smart girls”: W. E. Hill, “The Great Southwest,” CT, Nov. 24, 1929, p. D11.

“It takes so long”: This essay appears in slightly different forms in different volumes (the best-known of which was more heavily edited by Edmund Wilson for The Crack-Up), but this is from the original typewritten and hand-edited manuscript in Fitzgerald: My Lost City: Personal Essays, 1920–1940, app. 1, p. 316 (which is typewritten page 13, first entry for 1927).

“Wild buffalo fed”: While several historians have used edited recollections of this quote, from a handwritten scrapbook entry by Harvey Girl Opal Sells Hill, it did appear in “Mr. Rogers Waxes Enthusiastic over the Beauties of the West,” NYT, May 13, 1931, p. 27, and is also in Smallwood and Gragert, Will Rogers’ Daily Telegrams, telegrams for March 12, 1931, no. 1498, vol. 3, p. 26.

“The only test”: Fisher, From the Journals of M. F. K. Fisher, pp. 167–69.

CHAPTER 33: POISED FOR TAKEOFF

Freddy Harvey was one of those: Freddy’s day with Lindbergh is described in “Lindbergh ‘Drops In’ Again,” LAT, April 12, 1928, p. 1.

the Wall Street Journal announced: “Form Transcontinental Air Transport Company,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 1938, p. 20.

“Air travel in the U.S.”: “Train & Plane,” Time, May 28, 1928.

first big golf game: “Southerner on Ticket Is Goal of Virginians,” Washington Post, June 10, 1928, p. M4.

their teams finally met: Coverage of the match is in “Will Rogers Leads Team to Win Over Blues,” KCJP, June 15, 1928, p. 8.

“Something terrible just happened”: Break-in is re-created from coverage in “Detectives Rake Underworld for Harvey Intruder,” KCJP, Oct. 5, 1928, p. 2-A; and “A Knife Bandit in Home,” KCT, Oct. 5, 1928, p. 1.

frequent house calls: This observation is inferred from the original coverage, which said she was being treated “by a private physician,” and observation of later probate records showing frequent house calls. At that time, a private doctor making private calls on a wealthy patient would have been fairly normal.

marriage had long been over: While coverage of the Drages never really acknowledged this, it is clear the couple never lived in the same place for the last five years of Colonel Drage’s life. Also, author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr. Both the loan and the co-signing are mentioned in probate documents, probate no. 43,282, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City.

“the greatest year”: Quoted in Klingaman, 1929, p. 54.

had grown astronomically: A conservative estimate was 88 percent growth in the number of restaurant and lunchroom keepers, according to Recent Social Trends in the United States, p. 668.

he was running: These tallies come from “Byron S. Harvey Becomes Head of the Fred Harvey System,” SFMag, Feb. 1929, p. 44; details were also confirmed by corporate year-end report ledger books in JKC for 1931.

“How large can”: Ford Harvey, unpublished manuscript, July 19, 1927, pp. 17–18, HMC.

CHAPTER 34: FORD HARVEY HAS A COLD

“Ford Harvey has”: This re-creation of the scene of Ford realizing he is sick in his office is based on an author’s visit to the office, which still looks very much now as it did then; descriptions of the office culture from taped interviews with Stewart Harvey Sr. and author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.; details from obituaries, especially “Ford Harvey Dead,” Santa Fe New Mexican, Dec. 14, 1928; and an authorly nod to the canon of Gay Talese at Esquire.

“milder variety”: “Flu Epidemic Spreading Fast,” LAT, Dec. 12, 1928, p. 7.

He hired nurses: The nurses’ names were in the Ford Harvey probate documents, including their paid bills, probate no. 31,671, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City for 1929; which were also used to flesh out many other details of his treatment.

“progressing satisfactorily”: “Ford Harvey Is Worse,” KCStar, Dec. 13, 1928, p. D-14.

“Ford Harvey Nears Pneumonia”: KCJP, Dec. 13, 1928, p. D-14.

Dr. Griffith recorded: As per death certificate, file no. 40,792, Missouri State Board of Health.

“I have lost an old friend”: White’s reactions to Ford’s death, and those below it, are all quoted in “Ford Harvey, Worthy Son of a Worthy Sire, Taken by Death,” SFMag, Jan. 1929, pp. 33–35.

“all forms of petting”: “Taboo on Kissing Is Urged While Flu Epidemic Rages,” Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1929, p. 5.

“In as few words”: “Will of Ford Harvey,” KCStar, Dec. 20, 1928.

“one of the shortest”: “Harvey Children Receive All of $1,000,000 Estate,” KCJP, Dec. 20, 1928; dollar amounts in the rest of this section are based on Ford Harvey probate documents.

the Christmas present Ford had chosen: Handwritten receipt from John Angel, dated Jan. 4, 1929, in the amount of $175 ($2,118), in Ford Harvey probate documents, along with request from Freddy for reimbursement on Jan. 12, 1929, since he paid for the delivery with a personal check.

“A Harvey should always be”: Gertrude Benjamin Schloss to Amfac (the company that bought Fred Harvey in the mid-1970s), Jan. 10, 1976 (it was later forwarded to the Grand Canyon office and ended up in Amfac file, CLC).

Since Freddy and Kitty: The ownership stakes of the lucrative Union Station business are in the Harvey Hotel & Restaurant Company corporate meeting book, p. 79, DHC, which shows the stockholders as of Jan. 14, 1929.

CHAPTER 35: FREDDY SPREADS HIS WINGS

“You may not be able”: Colter to Hunter Clarkson, Oct. 4, 1926, as quoted in Berke, Mary Colter, p. 162, which is also the source of other La Fonda design background.

“You never met”: Pyle, Home Country, p. 76.

“the most beautiful hotel in America”: De Beauvoir, America Day by Day, p. 186. This entry was for March 20, 1947, and went on to describe the scene at the hotel: “Around the patio there are cool galleries paved with mosaics and furnished in the Spanish style. In the lobby an Indian has, for years, been selling fake turquoise and petrified wood to the tourists. This small-time tradesman has a noble face sculpted with deep wrinkles, like an old chief in James Fenimore Cooper. The dining room is Mexican-style in decor, dress, and varied cuisine. And here we are, four French people gathered together by chance, fraternizing around a table, just as travelers fraternized at roadside inns in old adventure novels.”

“Airsickness is mental”: “Meeting the Food Problems of Travelers Who Go by Air,” KCStar, June 6, 1929, n.p., HMC.

Transcontinental Air Transport finally: Background on TAT from “The Lindbergh Line,” Aviation History, July 2007, pp. 34–41; daily coverage in the NYT and LAT; and author interview on Aug. 5, 2008, with author Gore Vidal, the son of TAT executive Eugene Vidal, who provided much useful insight—along with some career advice for me. “Why are you writing about some caterer,” he asked, “when my father is the real story?”

“showed no concern”: “Air Passengers Transferred Owing to Mishap to Plane,” Hartford Courant, July 10, 1929, p. 13.

“blood trickling from my tiny lobes”: “Love of Flying,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 17, 1985. Interestingly, the vivid first paragraph of this article—which is all that is available for free on Web searches—leads the reader to believe (and some journalists have rewritten) that Vidal was on the maiden flight of TAT. But a footnote, available only in the full text, appears to suggest that a fact-checker challenged this bit of Vidal family lore and, since the passenger lists for that first flight were widely published, was able to prove his memory false. But the lede of the essay wasn’t changed.

“American Aviation Shall Be”: From dedication book of the Columbus event, Winged Victory, p. 5.

“the American Century”: This was the title of an essay Luce wrote in Life, Feb. 17, 1941.

CHAPTER 36: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT CRASHING SOUND

“Young man, I’m shielding”: Collins, Tales of an Old Air-Faring Man, p. 110.

But the flight never arrived: Re-creation of the search for this plane is based on national coverage at the time but also the excellent two-part series by Richard Melzer in the Valencia (N.M.) News-Bulletin: “Greatest Airplane Search in Southwest Touched Off in Western Valencia County,” March 25, 2006, and “No One Survived Crash in Rugged Terrain,” April 1, 2006, both written with the help of the Valencia County Historical Society.

“a Railroad Problem”: “Broad Street Gossip: A Railroad Problem,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 10, 1929, p. 2.

“We had one customer”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 184.

“You’ve lost a wheel, sir”: “F. H. Harvey in a Thriller,” KCStar, March 16, 1930, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

“homelike and livable”: Memos on the Wellington wall debates found in the Santa Fe “Splinters” collection, a copy of which I read in the Russell Crump archive in Kansas City before Russell’s untimely death. The memo with this phrase, near the end of the debate, was dated Oct. 12, 1937.

“Congratulations on the new”: Grattan, Mary Colter, p. 67, citing her phone conversation with Harvey executive Harold Belt on Nov. 3, 1977.

railroad-rich Van Sweringen: Details on the brothers and their station are from Harwood, Invisible Giants.

“really the fronts of drawers”: “Harvey Comes to Cleveland,” Publishers Weekly, Aug. 16, 1930, pp. 585–87.

“Why does this magnificent applied science”: “Einstein Sees Lack in Applying Science,” NYT, Feb. 17, 1931, p. 6.

“What’s his business?”: “Einstein Is ‘Great Relative,’ Hopis Decide on His Theory,” NYT, March 2, 1931, p. 5.

CHAPTER 37: LOAVES AND FISHES

“Of course we can”: This scene is re-created from Bob O’Sullivan’s wonderful piece, “It’s 55 Years Late, but Thanks, Mr. Harvey, for the Memory,” for the CT travel section, Dec. 11, 1988, p. 3.

started removing some links: This list of closures was compiled from datelines in the Fred Harvey and Santa Fe corporate archives, but also cross-checked against company ledgers in JKC.

“Those were tough times”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 189.

“My waiter informed”: Adam C. Powell Jr., “Soap Box: Without a White Massa Trouble Is Negligible,” Amsterdam News, May 15, 1937, p. 22.

The two of them would sit: This scene is re-created from reporting in Kathy Howard’s essay on Schweizer, “‘A Most Remarkable Success,’” p. 93; and Berke, Mary Colter, pp. 190–93.

“a balcony-ringed, cave-like”: Berke, Mary Colter, pp. 199–205, which is also the source for the descriptions below.

“the bulkiness of this manual”: Colter, Manual for Drivers and Guides.

CHAPTER 38: HEIR RAISING

“In the 1930s”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“put yourself in my position”: Anecdote from Htapes, no. 6, side A.

“I am enclosing”: Byron Harvey to his three sons, Oct. 15, 1923, SHC.

“Trust you will have”: Byron Harvey Jr. to Stewart Harvey Sr., telegram, June 2, 1931, SHC.

So Minnie and Freddy both: Author email correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

he openly defied Minnie: Author interview with Byron “Ronny” Harvey III, at which he produced his original birth certificate.

“Mrs. Frederick Harvey Here”: Chicago American, Jan. 14, 1933, n.p., clipping found in scrapbook in Santa Fe Harvey family compound, which was kept by Mrs. Stewart Harvey Sr., SHC.

“to cooperate with other officers”: “A Wider Harvey System,” KCStar, Feb. 27, 1933, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

“I try to follow the teachings”: “David Benjamin Is Dead,” KCJP, May 8, 1933, n.p., family scrapbook file, AKC.

“who has had his share”: “David Benjamin Telephones Calmly as Earthquake Showers Plaster,” KCJP, March 12, 1933, n.p., Harvey company clipping file, HMC.

clutching his chest: Details of Benjamin’s death are in “Kansas City Mourns Loss of David Benjamin,” Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, May 12, 1933, p. 1.

“Let ’em have it”: Richetti, “Famous Cases” (based on FBI’s own files).

“Wild Dash Rouzer”: “Harvey Girls,” KCStar, Feb. 17, 1946.

“The thirty-six freight”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 184.

CHAPTER 39: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

“One day while zooming”: Mademoiselle magazine story quoted in IND, Jan. 4, 1936, n.p., Harvey clipping file, HMC.

“Be a Tail Wagger”: From “Blue-Blooded Tail Waggers Aid ‘Poor,’” undated clip from unknown paper, probably fall of 1932, found in Daggett Harvey Sr.’s Frederick Harvey clipping file, DHC.

photographed holding her: “Susanna Arrives for Blessed Event,” KCJP, Feb. 9, 1934, n.p., Harvey company clipping file, HMC.

“I always wondered”: Htapes, no. 8, side B.

“They fought a lot”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“camping and wandering”: “Back from a Trip to Remote Country of Cliff Dwellers,” KCStar, Nov. 22, 1932, p. 4.

“Away my knaves”: Entire duck press scene is re-created from untitled KCJP article, Oct. 31, 1934, n.p., p. 36 of the historical clippings file for “Union Station Restaurant,” MVSC.

pulled fifty carloads of sugar: Htapes, no. 2, side A.

“took a special interest”: “Mr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Harvey Killed in Crash of Private Plane,” Santa Fe Magazine, June 1936, p. 9.

On her arrival, Betty went: Betty’s trip to England is r e-created based on Freddy Harvey probate documents, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City; author interviews with Elizabeth Drage Pettifer, for whose birth Betty went to England; and author correspondence, Aug. 14, 2007, with Mary. S Goodman, the daughter of Harold Furness, the doctor who arranged for Betty to consult with Dr. Dearnley.

she had Norah Crampton: Crampton’s multipage bill is document no. 43,282 in the Freddy Harvey probate file, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City.

CHAPTER 40: TAILSPIN

She and Freddy stayed over: The couple’s last visit to New York is re-created from obituaries but especially “Fred Harvey Spent Pleasant Week-End Here,” New York Journal, April 20, 1936, Daggett Harvey Sr. clipping file, DHC.

The next morning, the Harveys took off: Their fateful flight is re-created from obituaries, especially “Blast in the Air,” KCT, April 20, 1936; and the Bureau of Air Commerce report on the crash, “Statement of Probable Cause Concerning an Accident Which Occurred to a Privately Owned Airplane near Dunlo, Pennsylvania, on April 19, 1936” (report dated June 11, 1936, no. 10,574), signed by Eugene Vidal. I also interviewed several contemporary Staggerwing flyers, including Paul Tollini and American Airlines pilot Bill Plecenik, who were given copies of the government report and eyewitness reports to help create the most probable scenario for what happened in the cockpit.

“It looks bad”: “Blast in the Air.”

“Plane Crash Nightmare”: Johnstown Democrat, April 20, 1936, p. 1.

“Martha said to Jesus”: “To the Grave Together,” KCStar, April 23, 1936, reported on what was read at the funeral.

“my epochal ride”: Howard Vincent O’Brien, “All Things Considered,” Chicago Daily News, April 29, 1936, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

CHAPTER 41: KITTY BLINKS

Lucy Drage, sued Kitty: The re-creation of this legal action comes from KCJP and KCStar coverage from when the suit was settled in April 1937 and author interview with Kansas City attorney Frank Sebree II, who recalled his father’s representation of Lucy Drage in the lawsuit.

nothing compared to the horror show: The re-creation of the internal struggles of the Harvey family over ownership is based on “It Happened in Kansas City,” KCStar, April 1, 1949, which discussed the situation; taped interview with Stewart Harvey Sr., who discussed the situation in some detail; author interviews with Stewart Harvey Jr. and Daggett Harvey Jr., who shared recollections of what their fathers told them; and author interviews with Byron Harvey III and Joy Harvey, who shared recollections of what Kitty herself told them. Valuations come from corporate ledgers in JKC and Freddy Harvey probate documents.

“It was important”: Htapes, no. 8, side A.

“it was done the proper way”: Author interview with Daggett Harvey Jr.

more likely as much as $3 million: Estimate based on the money actually changing hands in 1938, which is most likely; Joy Harvey recalled hearing the higher estimate. Some of the paperwork from the final transaction is in a small, five-by-eleven expanding file, with advertising from turn-of-the-century financial firms, hand marked “Valuable Papers B. S. Harvey,” in DHC, including an envelope of Fred Harvey stationery containing letters from the summer of 1936 showing preliminary changes in the company stock owned by Kitty.

“She didn’t like to speak”: Author interview with Byron Harvey III.

“Not that it’s any”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“simply refused”: Hugh Gardner, “Saga of Tim W. Cooper,” scrapbook, DHC.

“The Howard Johnson vogue”: Advertisement in Hartford Courant, May 28, 1938.

CHAPTER 42: PRIVATE PRINGLE TO THE RESCUE

“with the greatest respect”: Rankin to Byron Harvey on Major Pictures Corporation stationery, misdated Oct. 22, 1926 (but marked received at Fred Harvey offices in Chicago Oct. 24, 1936). Found in the voluminous files of a lawsuit between Fred Harvey and the owners of a Philadelphia restaurant called Harvey House, JKC.

Susannah Was a Lady: Original titles and stars from the file of a lawsuit against the film company by the author of a magazine story, who claimed the movie was based on his piece. See Funkhouser v. Lowe’s, Inc., United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 208 F.2d 185, Dec. 11, 1953. Rehearing denied Jan. 5, 1954, paragraph 5; also, George H. Reed to Byron Harvey, Nov. 7, 1936, Harold Belt file on Harvey Girls movie, CLC.

“perfectly legitimate”: Head to Byron Harvey Jr., Nov. 11, 1936, and Byron Harvey Jr. to Byron Harvey Sr., Nov. 12, 1936, Harold Belt file, CLC.

revolutionary china pattern: Information on Mimbreño from Richard Luckin’s exhaustive Mimbres to Mimbreño.

“newest rendezvous in town”: “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” LAT, May 17, 1939, p. 12.

“a rolling nightmare”: Bryant, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, p. 336.

“The newspaper announced”: Emporia Daily Gazette, Jan. 31, 1940, p. 4.

“I have a hunch”: Kennedy, Samuel Hopkins Adams and the Business of Writing, p. 205, citing Adams’s papers and Bennett Cerf’s book At Random (a memoir that, on p. 170, gives the impression that Cerf conjured the idea of the Harvey Girls book himself, unprompted by the movie project, after a meeting with Byron). Kennedy’s book also is the source for material about the writer’s dealings with the Harveys.

“It really changed the Harvey standard”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, pp. 198–99.

specify “colored” seating: Author interview with Russell Crump as we looked at these blueprints in his archive.

“Although they hired”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 198.

“Victory will come SOONER”: At bottom of “KP? Not for Private Pringle!” advertisement in Life, Dec. 20, 1943, p. 57.

CHAPTER 43: THE SPIES AT LA FONDA

“I just put it in my pocket”: Quoted in Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 477.

“electromagnetic gun”: Conant, 109 East Palace, p. 131.

“Every once in a while”: Badash, Hirschfelder, and Broida, Reminiscences of Los Alamos, p. 86.

CHAPTER 44: BIG HOLLYWOOD ENDING

“a nice, lyrical quality to it”: Furia, Skylark, p. 156.

They planned to oversee the picture: The behind-the-scenes micromanagement of the picture by Byron is re-created from company correspondence and author interview with film historian John Fricke, who also did the excellent liner notes to the 1996 rerelease of the film’s complete soundtrack.

“Does anybody understand”: Quoted in Fricke, liner notes, p. 5.

“They’re going to make me look like an idiot”: Furia, Skylark, p. 156.

“there will be no slip-up”: Byron Harvey to “Mr. Wendell,” memo, June 1, 1945, CLC.

“Now we are all sons of bitches”: Quoted in Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 675.

“Hiroshima has been destroyed”: Quoted in Rhodes, Ibid., p. 735.

EPILOGUE

They got as far as Gallup: This sad trip, the end of the Fred Harvey eating house empire, was recounted by eyewitness Harry Briscoe in my correspondence with him, and also in his book, Watching the Trains Go By.

“Beef stew? For God’s sake!”: This quote recounted in Broggie, Walt Disney’s Railroad Story, p. 62; this book, with in-depth interviews with Kimball, was a primary source for this section, esp. pp. 51–66.

“I can’t figure out why”: Ibid., p. 68.

“Mortimer is too pompous”: Ibid., p. 67.

“Mickey Mouse Park”: Ibid., p. 88.

“an almost destructive”: Author interview with Daggett Harvey Jr.

“shore it up”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

“There is such a thing”: Grattan, Mary Colter, p. 111.

APPENDIX I

“This new blue streak”: Emporia Gazette, May 13, 1936.

“When the railroad connected”: Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 184.

if you want a room at El Tovar: The phone number is 888–297–2757. Start dialing now. And don’t be discouraged, because for the first hour or two, it’s mostly people trying to reserve the handful of rooms at the floor of the canyon at Phantom Ranch. If you get through in the first two or three hours, you’ll probably get what you want.