 His family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when Garland was still a boy.He was educated privately and at St Bees School, Cumbria, England.After a brief career in the steel industry, he attended Philadelphia Divinity School from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1891, and was ordained deacon for the Diocese of Pittsburgh on June 28, 1891, and priest the following year by Bishop Cortlandt Whitehead.