I just finished reading Lesley Poling-Kempes' *The Harvey Girls: Women Who
Opened the West *(1989)*. *Fred Harvey, an English immigrant, worked for
the H&SJ and CB&Q from 1862 into the late 1870s. He began his restaurant
business in 1875, just before becoming the Q's general western freight
agent. He approached the Q with his ideas and the desperate need for such
services, but the Q was not impressed and did not believe a railroad company
should invest in food services. They suggested he approach the AT&SF
because they "would try anything."
Harvey's empire with the AT&SF became legendary partly because some Q exec's
were too short-sighted to see a business opportunity coming from within
their own ranks. Harvey started the now-famous system with the AT&SF on an
informal basis in 1876 and by contract in early 1878. As the business
expanded with the AT&SF, Harvey then quit the Q to operate the Harvey Houses
full time.
How would Judy Garland sing a song about the CB&Q?
- John Manion
Denver, CO
On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 9:18 AM, Gerald & Virginia Edgar
<vje68@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
> Per our discussion several yrs ago, Grier had even more restaurants on the
> Rock Island & as memory serves, had a much closer relationship with the Rock
> (RITS, their Historical Society, had a 'clinic' on same at a meet in Cedar
> Falls, IA yrs ago & I believe Grier was covered in one of their society
> publications) Any mbrs of RITS on this list?
>
> On the other hand, CB&Q had a variety of entities providing food service at
> various stations as witnessed by earlier posts. Also, BR 'dinner' or 'lunch'
> passes I have from the good old days do not cite 'names' such as Grier but
> just locations and there were far more than the Grier operations. All that
> said, Grier was probably the largest commercial restaurant service on the
> Burlington but when you consider how many stations once had food service
> they were a minority. (older timetables show 'lunch' stops)
>
> Gerald
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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