Harlan was born the son of a farmer but he had bigger dreams. In 1867, just after the Wyoming Territory was established, Harlan was given the chance to work as an attorney in the Cheyenne law offices of Wyoming's first Territorial Secretary, Edward M. Lee. Perhaps it was the adventure or his idealism that appealed to Mary Jane Rowley because they soon married (possibly in secret) and headed west, crossing the plains by covered wagon. He and his young wife were close enough to an attack by Native Americans that one of their trunks was pierced by arrows. They also (according to Mary Jane's obituary) saw the golden spike driven in the transcontinental railroad.
Not long after Harlan reached Cheyenne, his career diversified. In addition to working at Lee's law office, Harlan opened an insurance agency, solicting salesmen for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Territories to sell life insurance. Then he opened an agency to sell fire insurance and then fire extinguishers. That same year he also became the Financial Agent/Publisher for the Wyoming Tribune, the newspaper Edward M. Lee had established. Since Cheyenne's population had begun to plummet, Harlan became an enthusiastic advocate for convincing easterners to move to the city, even negotiating with the railroads to offer special deals to get them there. After his boss Lee fell from political grace, Harlan severed his ties with that paper and began to publish his own, The Wyoming Daily News, which folded (in part due to Cheyenne's faltering economy.)
Discouraged and disillusioned, he and his young family headed back east, their marriage crumbling. After the divorce, Harlan moved to New York, remarried, and established himself as a business writer and editor, primarily with the American Railroad Journal but with numerous other trade publications as well. He always wrote under the byline H.A. Pierce.
His second wife's family had a home in Gales Ferry, in Connecticut, where they and his wife's widowed sister (who also lived with them in their home in New York City) summered each year. He had a extensive and eclectic art collection that he auctioned off much of in 1904.
In addition to the three daughters linked below, Harlan and Mary had Fanny May, born in May of 1871 in Wyoming. Fanny married Rupert Gesner Trefry, the brother of her sister Addie's husband. She lived in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1910, in the Bronx, New York in 1920, and in Stamford, Connecticut in 1930. Her date and place of death are unknown as of yet.
Not long after Harlan reached Cheyenne, his career diversified. In addition to working at Lee's law office, Harlan opened an insurance agency, solicting salesmen for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Territories to sell life insurance. Then he opened an agency to sell fire insurance and then fire extinguishers. That same year he also became the Financial Agent/Publisher for the Wyoming Tribune, the newspaper Edward M. Lee had established. Since Cheyenne's population had begun to plummet, Harlan became an enthusiastic advocate for convincing easterners to move to the city, even negotiating with the railroads to offer special deals to get them there. After his boss Lee fell from political grace, Harlan severed his ties with that paper and began to publish his own, The Wyoming Daily News, which folded (in part due to Cheyenne's faltering economy.)
Discouraged and disillusioned, he and his young family headed back east, their marriage crumbling. After the divorce, Harlan moved to New York, remarried, and established himself as a business writer and editor, primarily with the American Railroad Journal but with numerous other trade publications as well. He always wrote under the byline H.A. Pierce.
His second wife's family had a home in Gales Ferry, in Connecticut, where they and his wife's widowed sister (who also lived with them in their home in New York City) summered each year. He had a extensive and eclectic art collection that he auctioned off much of in 1904.
In addition to the three daughters linked below, Harlan and Mary had Fanny May, born in May of 1871 in Wyoming. Fanny married Rupert Gesner Trefry, the brother of her sister Addie's husband. She lived in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1910, in the Bronx, New York in 1920, and in Stamford, Connecticut in 1930. Her date and place of death are unknown as of yet.
Harlan was born the son of a farmer but he had bigger dreams. In 1867, just after the Wyoming Territory was established, Harlan was given the chance to work as an attorney in the Cheyenne law offices of Wyoming's first Territorial Secretary, Edward M. Lee. Perhaps it was the adventure or his idealism that appealed to Mary Jane Rowley because they soon married (possibly in secret) and headed west, crossing the plains by covered wagon. He and his young wife were close enough to an attack by Native Americans that one of their trunks was pierced by arrows. They also (according to Mary Jane's obituary) saw the golden spike driven in the transcontinental railroad.
Not long after Harlan reached Cheyenne, his career diversified. In addition to working at Lee's law office, Harlan opened an insurance agency, solicting salesmen for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Territories to sell life insurance. Then he opened an agency to sell fire insurance and then fire extinguishers. That same year he also became the Financial Agent/Publisher for the Wyoming Tribune, the newspaper Edward M. Lee had established. Since Cheyenne's population had begun to plummet, Harlan became an enthusiastic advocate for convincing easterners to move to the city, even negotiating with the railroads to offer special deals to get them there. After his boss Lee fell from political grace, Harlan severed his ties with that paper and began to publish his own, The Wyoming Daily News, which folded (in part due to Cheyenne's faltering economy.)
Discouraged and disillusioned, he and his young family headed back east, their marriage crumbling. After the divorce, Harlan moved to New York, remarried, and established himself as a business writer and editor, primarily with the American Railroad Journal but with numerous other trade publications as well. He always wrote under the byline H.A. Pierce.
His second wife's family had a home in Gales Ferry, in Connecticut, where they and his wife's widowed sister (who also lived with them in their home in New York City) summered each year. He had a extensive and eclectic art collection that he auctioned off much of in 1904.
In addition to the three daughters linked below, Harlan and Mary had Fanny May, born in May of 1871 in Wyoming. Fanny married Rupert Gesner Trefry, the brother of her sister Addie's husband. She lived in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1910, in the Bronx, New York in 1920, and in Stamford, Connecticut in 1930. Her date and place of death are unknown as of yet.
Not long after Harlan reached Cheyenne, his career diversified. In addition to working at Lee's law office, Harlan opened an insurance agency, solicting salesmen for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming Territories to sell life insurance. Then he opened an agency to sell fire insurance and then fire extinguishers. That same year he also became the Financial Agent/Publisher for the Wyoming Tribune, the newspaper Edward M. Lee had established. Since Cheyenne's population had begun to plummet, Harlan became an enthusiastic advocate for convincing easterners to move to the city, even negotiating with the railroads to offer special deals to get them there. After his boss Lee fell from political grace, Harlan severed his ties with that paper and began to publish his own, The Wyoming Daily News, which folded (in part due to Cheyenne's faltering economy.)
Discouraged and disillusioned, he and his young family headed back east, their marriage crumbling. After the divorce, Harlan moved to New York, remarried, and established himself as a business writer and editor, primarily with the American Railroad Journal but with numerous other trade publications as well. He always wrote under the byline H.A. Pierce.
His second wife's family had a home in Gales Ferry, in Connecticut, where they and his wife's widowed sister (who also lived with them in their home in New York City) summered each year. He had a extensive and eclectic art collection that he auctioned off much of in 1904.
In addition to the three daughters linked below, Harlan and Mary had Fanny May, born in May of 1871 in Wyoming. Fanny married Rupert Gesner Trefry, the brother of her sister Addie's husband. She lived in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1910, in the Bronx, New York in 1920, and in Stamford, Connecticut in 1930. Her date and place of death are unknown as of yet.
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