Hanero T. Baya was born in 1839 in St. Augustine, Florida. He was a fourth generation descendant of a Spanish land grant family. In 1856 in Charleston, South Carolina, he became a clerk with P. J. Porcher, who owned a brokerage and auctioneering firm located at 25 Broad Street; in 1859, Baya was made a partner in the firm; the firm went out of business with the advent of the American Civil War. On December 10, 1860, Hanero Baya married Mary Carmin Benet at Saint Johns, Florida.

In 1861, Capt. Baya became a clerk in the Confederate Army Subsistence Department. In July 1862, he was appointed Captain, Assistant Commissary, Confederate States Army, 8th Florida Regiment. Capt. Baya was in the second battle of Manassas and at Chancellorsville; he was captured at Gettysburg. He served 18 months at Camp Point Lookout in Maryland. In May 1865, at the end of the War, he was paroled at Lake City, Florida as a Major and was then made a Colonel in the 11th Florida State Militia. In Jacksonville, Florida in 1865, Colonel Baya and a Mr. Pace opened a grocery store selling supplies to the steamboat trade. The store was located at the corner of Ocean and Bay Streets by the St. Johns River. In 1867, Colonel Baya became the sole owner of the grocery store on East Bay Street selling both wholesale and retail. Colonel Baya continued the grocery business through the mid 1890’s. In addition to running his grocery business, in 1874 he purchased the steamer GAZELLE, WATER LILY in 1879, PASTIME in 1880, SYLVAN GLEN in 1881, and MAGNOLIA in 1882. In 1882, the steamboat H. T. BAYA was built in Philadelphia. On March 28, 1883, Baya’s Line merged with Frederick de Bary’s DeBary Merchants’ Line to form the DeBary-Baya Merchants’ Line. In 1886 and 1887, Colonel Baya was the General Manager for the DeBary-Baya Merchants Line. By 1888, Colonel Baya was out of the steamboat business but continued to run the grocery. In 1891, he became cashier of the newly-opened Merchants National Bank of Jacksonville, Florida which was located at 16 East Bay Street. Colonel Baya worked at the Bank until 1899 when he went into the real estate business.