Roland H. Hartley

Hartley, the eighth of twelve children, was born at Shogomoc in the British colony of New Brunswick on June 26, 1864. (It became the Province of New Brunswick after Canadian Confederation in 1867).[1] He was the son of Rev. Edward Hartley and Rebecca Barker (Whitehead) Hartley.

Hartley moved to Minnesota about 1878, joining older brothers Wilder, Benjamin, and Guilford in Brainerd, Minnesota.

After moving to Minnesota, he worked summers on bonanza farms in Dakota Territory and winters in the logging industry. He later relocated to Minneapolis, finding work as a bookkeeper for Clough Brothers Lumber Company.

In 1888, he married Nina M. Clough, daughter of David Clough, cementing his ties to Clough Brothers. The couple would have three children, Edward, David, and Mary.[2]

Hartley rose to become manager and then Vice President of Clough Brothers. His father-in-law was elected Governor of Minnesota in 1895, and in 1897 Hartley began serving as his private secretary.[3] During the Spanish–American War of 1898, he additionally served as the Governor's representative and staff aide to the Minnesota National Guard, acquiring the honorific title of Colonel.

In 1900, David Clough moved to Everett, Washington to establish a new sawmill. Hartley, in turn, managed development of the new Cass Lake, Minnesota townsite for his older brother Guildford Hartley.

Hartley rejoined his father-in-law in Everett in 1902, eventually assuming roles as either manager or owner of Hartley and Lovejoy Logging Company, the Clark-Nickerson Lumber Company, the Everett Logging Company, the Clough-Hartley Mill, and Everett City Tug Boat Company.[4]

Hartley had joined the Republican Party. He was elected mayor of Everett, Washington, serving one term from 1910 to 1912. He was next elected in 1914 to the Washington State House of Representatives, serving from 1915 to 1916.

Hartley was elected, in 1925, as tenth Governor of Washington.[5] His father-in-law David Clough arranged to have the gavel used for his swearing-in as governor of Minnesota to be the one used for the swearing-in of his son-in-law Hartley as governor in Washington.

Hartley's major accomplishments during his governorship were the creation of a centralized state highway department and passage of new state timber laws. He was the first Washington Republican governor to serve two terms and to run for a third. He was succeeded by Clarence D. Martin.

Hartley died in Seattle, Washington, on September 21, 1952. He is interred at Evergreen Cemetery (Everett, Washington).

• List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States

• Political Graveyard
• http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=8008
• Washington Secretary of State
• National Governors Association