Business 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 had three children, Edward, David, and Mary. 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. 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. 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. installation, October 13, 1926. Hartley's major accomplishments during his governorship were the creation of a centralized state highway department and passage of new state timber laws. , March 1927. In 1925, he vetoed House Bill 131, which would have created a separate state prison for women. The bill had passed the legislature under the sponsorship of
Belle Reeves (D-
Chelan County) and
Mabel Ingersoll Miller (R-
Snohomish County). Hartley was the first Washington
Republican governor to serve two terms and to run for a third. He lost the Republican primary to
lieutenant governor John Arthur Gellatly and was succeeded by
Clarence D. Martin. ==Death==