Harriet was born on the family farm and attended rural school in Walsh County, North Dakota. She graduated from the Walsh County Agricultural School in Park River in 1927, and later attended Mayville State Teachers College. For a time she taught in a rural school in North Dakota. Harriet and her younger sister "Babe" moved to Chicago about 1933. While undergoing a minor medical procedure, Harriet tragically died on an operating table four months after the accidental death of her brother, Nichol. Funeral services were held in her childhood home and at the Hoople Woodmen Hall, and burial was in the Hoople City Cemetery. She was 26 years old at her death.