Early Life and Career
Hartranft was born in Fagleysville, a village in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, near Pottstown. He attended Marshall College in Mercersburg—a forerunner of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster—and received his degree in civil engineering in 1853 from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He briefly worked for two railroads in eastern Pennsylvania before returning home to Norristown to assist his father in the real estate and stage line businesses. In 1854, he was appointed deputy sheriff of Montgomery County. That same year, he married Sallie Douglas Sebring. They had six children, but three died in infancy.
Hartranft was active in the Norristown fire company and the local Freemason lodge. Hartranft was admitted to the bar in 1860, and rose to the rank of colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia.
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