Early Life
Mohr was born on 28 December 1824 in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. He was the fourth child of the lamb farmer August Ludwig Mohr (1795-1833) and Dorothea Catharina Friederica (née Walker). The first three years of school, Mohr spent at the paedegogium of his home town. In 1833 the family moved to nearby Denkendorf where August Mohr founded a mustard and vinegar factory. On September 10 of the same year, August Mohr died suddenly.
Early in life, Mohr worked in the family business. He developed an interest in botany through his great-uncle, a forester at the Denkendorf convent, and his uncle's son, a student at the agricultural college in Hohenheim. Through the self-study of several books on botany, Mohr furthered his knowledge in this area and developed a taste for natural science. Following his mother's wishes, he attended the Polytechincal school in Stuttgart in autumn of 1842. There he studied chemistry under Professor Hermann von Fehling and learned the plant world of the tropics in the greenhouses of the imperial court garden where his childhood friend, Wilhelm Hochstetter, was an apprentice.
After finishing his studies, Karl was invited on a trip to Surinam by the explorer August Kappler. In November 1845 the two departed from the port on the island of Texel aboard the ship "Natalie." After a dangerous voyage, they reached New Guinea in mid-March 1846. From Paramaribo they went into the interior of the country, where Mohr collected plants for European florists and herbariums. Severe fever attacks struck Mohr and tied him to a sick bed for several months, so he felt compelled to follow the advice of the doctors and returned home in November 1846.
Back home, the botanist Professor Hochstetter (father of Mohr's friend Wilheim) arranged a job for Mohr as chemist in his son's factory in Brno. In April 1847, Mohr assumed his new position, which he soon lost when the factory closed during the revolution of 1848. Mohr left Brno and traveled with his brother Paul Heinrich, who had been living in London for some time. They met in August 1848 and decided to emigrate to the United States.
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