He was born in Lennoxtown, in Scotland, the son of Alexander McLane and his wife Mary, née Hay, and was brought to America with his family in 1853, when he was one year old. They settled in Manchester, and moved to Milford in 1869. Upon completion of his schooling, he became a cabinetmaker's apprentice, and opened his own shop in 1876. The business's success (it was for a time the largest manufacture of post-office furniture in North America) secured other business opportunities for him: he became a director of the Milford Granite Company, the Souheagan National Bank and the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company.
On 10 March1880 he married Ellen Luetta Tuck (1855-1927). They had four children, Clinton Averill McLane (1881), Hazel Ellen McLane (1885), John Roy McLane (1886), and Charles Malcolm McLane (1910).
As governor, McLane was instrumental in securing funding for highway improvement, and welcomed delegates to the Russo-Japanese War Peace Conference, which was held in Portsmouth during his term in office.
