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→Early life
Born in Oldenburg Province in Northwestern Germany in [[1844]], Baars was the son of a prosperous lumberman and farmer. His father had intended for him to become heir to a landed fortune, but changed his plans when Kaiser William and Otto von Bismarck began formation of a large conscript army. To help his son avoid service in the army, the elder Baars purchased a military substitute for the boy, and arranged for Henry to take a small partnership with Carl Epping & Sons of London, a British timber trading company. In [[1860]], the firm sent Henry to their office in Savannah, Georgia.
Baars had barely arrived and begun his business career when the [[Civil War]] erupted. He enlisted in the Confederate army, and four years later was discharged, wounded and penniless. Within months, though, he had managed to reopen the Epping office and had wooed a beautiful Southern belle named [[Mary Ellison Baars|Mary Ellison Dunwody]]. The couple were married, and in [[18701871]] Baars elected to move to Pensacola, where prospects for lumbering and the timber trade seemed far better. Shortly thereafter Baars ended his association with the Epping company and began his own firm.
==In Pensacola==
