Duncan Hines: How a Traveling Salesman Became the Most Trusted Name in Food

Chapter Two: Out West

2 OUT WEST Late in 1898 Duncan Hines's health began to fail. He had developed "a slight wheeze" and later discovered he was suffering from asthma. "The cure for all respiratory ailments was, at that time, thought to be a move to a dry, mountainous area." After a conference with his father it was decided he should move out west immediately, lest his condition worsen.65 Consequently, he left Bowling Green Business College without a diploma. By the standards of the day, however, two years was considered by many to be the near equivalent of a full college education. Although he had to forego the diploma for which he had worked so hard, the sacrifice seemed not to have harmed his chances for employment.66 Due to his mother's untimely death and his father's fragile health, maturity had been forced upon him at an early age. He therefore taught himself to be resourceful and quickly learned he was the only person who could best look after his interests. The result was a young man whose mien was much more mature and resourceful than his eighteen years belied.67 To make his move westward he sought a job with the Wells-Fargo Express Company. Years later he told the press he took a job with the firm because John J. Valentine, then its president, came from his home town.68 There was a little more to the story. Valentine was not only a OUT WEST 19 Bowling Green native, he was also a good friend of Hines's father who wrote Valentine and requested he find a place for Duncan within the company. Within a few weeks Edward Hines saw his son off at the Bowling Green railway station as the young man headed for a job with Wells Fargo's Albuquerque branch, located in the wilds ofNew Mexico territory.69 Following a three-day train ride, Hines arrived at his destination on the evening of 31 December 1898. He discovered streets crowded with "Indians decked out in calico and cowboys with broad-brimmed hats.» All he remembered of that first night, however, was his distress. When he stepped off the train what he saw made him feel uncomfortable. "This was my first holiday away from home, my first night in a strange place. Feeling as though I had not a friend in the world, I registered at the old SturgessEuropean Hotel and crept up to bed." The next day he almost decided to go home but concluded he did not have enough money for the journey. Despite his homesickness, within a day or so he began his employment with the Wells-Fargo Express firm at $40 per month.7o Over the next few months, he quickly worked his way up the company ladder, first as a clerk, then as a railroad express messenger, then as a freight agent.71 Eventually he was assigned to be a company relief man. In this capacity, he moved from locality to locality in the Albuquerque area when regular Wells-Fargo agents became ill or went on vacation.72 For recreation he soon discovered a new place in Albuquerque to spend his time and salary: a restaurant. Specifically it was one of a chain of restaurants known officially as Fred Harvey's House, but to its patrons it was simply another "Harvey House.» Hines, who had never before set foot inside a restaurant-let alone eaten in one, found the experience an exhilarating one. Harvey Houses were a system of food service accommodations originally designed to cater to the public who needed transportation via the railway lines. In its own curious fashion, they helped tame the American West in outposts that heretofore were anything but civilized. Beginning in 1876 and continuing through the early 1960s, when the railroads ceased operating as a major mode of transportation, the Fred 20 DUNCAN HINES Harvey restaurant chain offered its travel weary customers good, elegantly prepared meals in a refined atmosphere at affordable prices. Many of the chain's outlets were located along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, the Albuquerque restaurant being one them.73 Unlike many restaurants ofthe day, it did not serve ((short-order cooking"-a synonym for fried food. Instead the Harvey chain's bill of fare offered "steaks, chops, ribs, hams, and bacon...usually served with potatoes, either home-fried, hash-brown, or boiled."74 A look at...