Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in a four-room house located 3 miles (5 km) east of Henryville, Indiana.[2] He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur David and Margaret Ann (née Dunlevy) Sanders.[2] The family attended the Advent Christian Church.[3] The family were of mostly Irish and English ancestry.
His father was a mild and affectionate man who worked his 80-acre farm, until he broke his leg after a fall. He then worked as a butcher in Henryville for two years. One summer afternoon in 1895, he came home with a fever and died later that day. Sanders' mother obtained work in a tomato cannery; and the young Harland was required to look after and cook for his siblings.[2] By the age of seven he was reportedly skilled with bread and vegetables, and improving with meat; the children foraged for food while their mother was away for days at a time for work.[4] When he was 10 Harland began to work as a farmhand for local farmers Charlie Norris and Henry Monk.